


A Special Kind of Real Fake Love

by karadanverz



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, fake dating au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-13 06:44:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 23,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13565034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karadanverz/pseuds/karadanverz
Summary: In order to catch a time-traveler that's trying to erase the Time Bureau from existence, Ava and Sara must go undercover at a couples retreat for a week so that they can catch him.





	1. The Mission

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I'm really excited about this fic. I love fake dating AU's and I had been saving this one specifically for Femslash Feb.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @sanvers-deserved-better and twitter @EllaLancelot
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. I love hearing what you all have to say :)
> 
> Enjoy!

“Yeah, I’m sorry but you’re going to need to repeat that.” Said Sara, as she tilted her head at the woman in front of her.

The Legends were gathered at the bridge and Ava and Gary had come to brief them on a mission.

Ava sighed “There’s a man named Alan Craig who’s been running around throughout time and trying to stop the Time Bureau from forming. We think he has ties with Mallus.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Asked Zari

“I was getting to that” Ava continued. “The Time Bureau was able to pinpoint his location to a couples retreat in Bethany Beach Delaware in 2001.”

“So then go to 2001 and arrest him.” Said Nate “Problem solved.”

“No, actually. Not problem solved.” lectured Gary “He changes his physical appearance every time he time-jumps using tech he stole from the Bureau. We need two people to go down to the retreat on an undercover operation and find him that way.”

Sara laughed “Well, I hope the two of you have fun together.” Said sara, gesturing between ava and Gary.

“Actually,” started Ava “We need one Time Bureau agent and one Legend. If this guy succeeds and the Bureau is erased from existence, we need one of you to act as our insurance policy and stop him.”

Sara took a moment to process the situation before turning around to face her team. “Okay, who wants to be Mr. or Mrs.Time Bureau for a week?”

All of the Legends, as well as Gary, immediately took a large step back, leaving Ava and Sara standing forward.

Sara looked behind her to verify her suspicion that Ava Sharpe was indeed, standing behind her and shook her head, knowing that she probably should have seen this coming.

“Well, it looks as if we have two volunteers!” Exclaimed Amaya, innocently.

Sara turned to face Ava who seemed like she was regretting the decision to step foot on the Waverider. “I’m in if you are.” said the blonde.

Ava exhaled. She was contemplating what her reply was going to be. “Well, I’m better suited for this than Gary, and you’re probably the Bureau’s best bet if we need somebody to fight a time-traveler solo, so I guess I’m in.” she said after a moment.

Sara smiled and pretended she didn’t see her team silently fist-bumping one another behind her. “I feel like there was a compliment somewhere in there, so thank you.”

Ava gave the shorter woman a sarcastic smile in return “I’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the mission in more detail and establish a cover story.” 

Ava opened up a portal back to her office and walked through, Gary trailing behind.

When the portal closed, the Legends went their separate ways and Sara started towards her room.

Zari walked up to her Captain with a shit-eating grin on her face. “Have fun at the couples retreat, Mrs.Time Bureau.”


	2. The Briefing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So it turns out that I forgot to set this as multi-chapter, but I fixed it. I have the whole thing planned out and it's going to be around 12 chapters long. My goal is to finish this by the end of Femslash February.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Tell me what you're thinking :)
> 
> Enjoy :)

“You’re late.” Said Ava

She and Sara were supposed to meet up in the lobby of the Time Bureau offices so that they could be briefed on their mission. The briefing meeting was at 11:30 am.

It was now 11:42 and Sara had strolled in through a time portal in sweat pants and sunglasses, holding a cup of coffee. It was a good look for her, but that wasn’t the point.

“Well excuse me for sleeping in.” Replied Sara, taking a long sip of her coffee.

Ava wasn’t having it.“First of all, you’re on a timeship so you shouldn’t be late for anything, second of all, why are you wearing sunglasses indoors? Are you hungover?”

Sara scoffed “I’m slightly offended that you think I would come to a mission briefing hungover. I wore these so that I would look cooler than you.”

“What?” Asked Ava

“Sunglasses make people look cooler.” 

“Whatever, let’s just go into the for the mission briefing.” Said Ava.

The taller woman lead Sara down a few hallways and into an office with a long conference table, a whiteboard and a projector.

In the room was an official looking time agent with long dark hair and a bureau-regulated pantsuit. There was also Gary.

Sara and Ava took their seats and silently waited for the meeting to start.

The dark-haired woman cleared her throat “Good morning, Agent Sharpe and Captain Lance. My name is Harper Chalkley and I am the acting director of the Time Bureau as of right now.”

Ava and Sara nodded in acknowledgement.

Director Chalkley continued “As the two of you know, there is a man named Alan Craig who is traveling through time to try and stop the time bureau from forming. We don’t know what his motive is, but we do know that he’s not going to give up without a fight. He acquired a time courier somehow, and he’s been using it to travel through time and attempt to prevent pivotal events on the forming of the bureau from occurring. He finds a way to change his appearance each time he jumps to a new spot in time, so we don’t have any way of telling you what or whom he looks like. We were able to track the time courier he stole to a couples retreat on Bethany Beach, Delaware in the year 2001. The two of you need to go undercover as an engaged couple and socialize with the other couples in order to pinpoint which one of the men is our time traveler. You then need to bring him into us, though if he puts up a fight, I need you to give him one.” the woman paused “Got it?”

Sara nodded “What’s our backstory.”

“The two of you need to make that up. We just need you to be an engaged couple in order to fit in at the retreat.” replied the director.

“Are all the couples there engaged?” Asked Ava

“I don’t know. All I know is that there will be three other couples with you at the retreat.” Director Chalkley replied once again.

“Will we have to pretend to be engaged 24/7?” asked Sara “We’ll get some privacy to be... ourselves, right?”

Director Chalkley considered the question “You’ll have a beach house to roam around freely so I think you’ll be okay on that front, but be on the lookout for hidden microphones or cameras. This guy seems like he knows what he’s doing, so we don’t want to take any chances.”

Sara let out a sigh of relief, knowing that she would have some time to herself during this mission.

The room was quiet for a moment until Director Chalkley broke the silence 

“Well then, I guess if nobody has any more questions, I’ll leave you to coming up with a backstory. Shoot me an email if you think of any questions or concerns.” She said as she gathered her things and walked out of the conference room, Gary trailing behind her.

After the door was shut, Ava turned to Sara and she noticed that the agent was holding a spiral notebook.

“Were you taking notes?” Asked Sara

“Yeah.” Replied Ava as though it was the obvious answer.

Sara decided to hold off on calling Ava a nerd. The two of then were about to spend the next week together as a couple and she could use this to annoy Ava then rather than now.

“So what’s our backstory?” Asked Sara. “How did we meet.”

“We could say we were police officers who met out in the field, started working on cases together and then fell madly in love.” Suggested Ava.

“Are you crazy?” Asked Sara “That’s hella suspicious! Might as well just get ‘Time Bureau Undercover Agents’ tattooed on our foreheads.”

“Well do you have a better idea?”

“We could just say we met on Tinder. It’s simple enough and doesn’t raise any follow-up questions.”

Ava rolled her eyes “It’s 2001. Society hasn’t lowered their standards to that level yet. Also, the iPhone hasn’t even been invented.”

“So I guess it’s finally time to break out that Nokia I’ve been holding into for 18 years.” quipped Sara.

“C’mon, think. We need a romantic backstory that isn’t suspicious and fits with the time period.”

“We could say that we lived next-door to each other growing up and as we evolved, so did our love for each other.” Said Sara, placing a hand to her heart to emphasise her point.

“That’s too cheesy.” Said Ava “We could say we’re lawyers who met each other as freshmen in college and eventually started dating.”

Sara thought about it “Sounds good, except all I know about being a lawyer is what I picked up from my sister and watching Ally McBeal”

“I was in law school for a year before I joined the bureau and I watch an unhealthy amount of Law and Order, so I can help you out.”

“Okay, we’ve got the basics, but what’s the real story? Like, the play by play?”

“Well,” Started Ava “We could say we were study buddies who didn’t get along at first but through all-nighters and study sessions we grew closer and as we learned more about one another. We eventually fell in love and then got jobs together at the same firm.”

Sara blinked “Are you sure this isn’t a real story?”

“If you’re implying that this happened to me, than no.”

“We also need fake names.” declared Sara “This Alan guy will probably know who I am, you know, my team and I are a pretty big deal around here. He’ll probably recognize the captain of one of the Bureau’s most wanted teams.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Said Ava “But you’re right, we should probably come up with fake names for ourselves.”

“I’ve always like the name Cassandra.” Sara mused “Cassie for short.”

“That works.” Ava said “I don’t know what mine should be.”

Sara looked at Ava for a minute. “Elizabeth. You look like an Elizabeth who goes by Liz.”

Ava nodded “Liz. I like it.”

“What’s the name of this resort or whatever again?” Asked Sara, pulling out her phone “I want to see what we’re dealing with here.”

Ava looked at her notes “The Bethany Beach Week-Long Romantic Couples Getaway.”

Sara paused and closed her eyes, trying to think “That sounds really familiar.”

“You probably just saw a commercial for it somewhere.” suggested Ava

Sara shrugged “Yeah, probably.”

The room was silent for a moment. There was a lingering question, though neither woman wanted to ask it.

Finally, Sara spoke up “You know, if we’re going to be engaged to maintain our cover we’re probably going to have to like, kiss. You know, in front of the people at the retreat.”

Ava nodded “Engaged couples tend to do that, yes.”

“So… should we practice?” Asked Sara.

Ava considered “It would look suspicious if we were awkward about it, so I guess we might as well.”

The two women stood up and faced each other. They moved so that there was little remaining space between them.

It was tense.

Sara put her hand on Ava’s shoulder and stood up on her toes so that they were relatively the same height.

Ava pressed her lips against Sara’s. 

The kiss only lasted a second before the two of them pulled away.

Although she was trying to hide it, Ava was blushing and the redness of the taller woman’s cheeks made Sara smile, like she had accomplished something.

Ava was the first to speak “Well, now that we’ve taken care of that, I suppose we can go back to our lives.” She gathered her things from the table. “See you tomorrow, Cassie.”

“You too, Liz.”

After Ava exited the room, Sara let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

This was going to be one hell of a week.


	3. We're In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara arrive at the beach house and start socializing with the other couples.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but the next chapter will be out soon, don't worry.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Tell me what you think :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Ava turned down a sandy road and pulled into the driveway of a large beach house and turned to the woman sitting next to her.

"Is this the right one?" She asked

Sara looked at the GPS, and then up to the house, and then to Ava, and then back to the GPS. 

"Yeah, I think so. It's hard to tell. You know, I really hate this GPS. It's super laggy and it thinks we're in the ocean."

Ava turned to Sara as she put the blue Jeep the Time Bureau had given them into park. "You've mentioned."

"Recalculating" Sara said in a mocking tone. "I miss Gideon."

"You'll be back to your team soon enough. For now, we need to focus on being undercover. There is no more Ava and Sara, only Cassie and Liz."

Sara started softly humming the Mission Impossible theme. And Ava smiled at her.

"Well," said Sara looking up to the three-story beach house "This is it. We're in"

"The Bethany Beach Week-Long Romantic Couples Getaway" Added Ava

"I don't know. That still sounds really familiar." Said Sara

Ava shrugged "We can think about that later. We should start getting settled in."

The two women stepped out of the white Jeep and looked around. They weren't the first ones there. There were two other cars in the driveway.

Ava reached into the back seat of the car and pulled out a duffel bag and a rolling suitcase.

She handed Sara the duffel bag, which the blonde then slung over her shoulder.

Sara and Ava headed to the door of the house and knocked.

"Do you think this is where we get the keys to wherever we're staying?" asked Ava.

"Probably." replied Sara "The website said that the couples are supposed to meet here to find out what activities we're doing when."

Ava nodded and before she could reply, the door of the beach house swung open.

The women were greeted by a 20-something man wearing a light blue polo that had the logo of the retreat website embroidered onto the back.

"Hello. I'm Corey Allington, head director of events here on the beach. Are you here for the couples getaway?" He asked

"Yes." Replied Sara "Cassandra and Elizabeth."

The man looked at his clipboard "Ah, Cassie and Liz. Come on in." 

Sara and Ava did as instructed and walked into the main room of the beach house.

They sat on the wide and brown leather couch where the other couples had gathered.

Sara looked around and analyzed the people sitting with her. Ava did the same.

There were two other couples that were in the room at the moment.

Ava figured the quickest way to find out who was the man they were looking for, was to start talking to the people in the room. She turned to the couple next to her.

"Hi, I'm Liz and this is my fiance Cassie." She said, holding out her right hand.

"Hi Liz, I'm Steve and this is my wife Anna." Said the man, shaking Ava's hand.

Sara looked over and waved to the couple. She predicted that the couple was newly married and overly-peppy. She also could have sworn that Anna was checking her out, but that   
was another thing entirely.

The couples in the room began to chat for a few minutes about college, and work, and meeting their respective spouses, and anything else that they could think of for small talk. Ava and Sara also got the chance to meet George and Jason, the only other gay couple in the room. Ava made a mental note of the fact that Jason seemed nervous, but decided not to dwell on it. At least, not now

After about ten minutes, the sound of a door opening came from the front hallway.

It was impossible to see anything that was going on from where Sara and Ava were sitting on the couch, but they could hear everything clearly.

Corey went through his whole 'welcome' speech and Ava noticed that Sara had a concentrated look on her face, like she was trying to place something.

It was hard to make out what the people entering were saying, but if you were listening closely, you could start to hear what was being said.

"Nice to meet you Corey, we're glad to be here." Said a mystery voice.

"Shit." whispered Sara.

The couples that the two women had introduced themselves to had gone off into another conversation and were too busy laughing to notice that Sara had gone pale.

Ava, who was only half-paying attention to Steve's story, looked at Sara. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"I think I know why this place sounded so familiar."


	4. Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara have to find a way to deal with a new problem that has presented itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on this fic so far! I love writing it, and I'm glad you all love reading it.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. I love hearing what you guys have to say!
> 
> Enjoy!

"I think I know why this place sounded so familiar." sad Sara as she turned so that her back was facing the front hallway and ducked her head so her face was only visible to Ava.

"What? What do you mean?" Asked Ava, visible confused.

"This place sounded familiar because those are my fucking parents!" whisper-shouted Sara as she pointed behind her, towards the voices coming from the front hall.

The couples that were there when Ava and Sara had arrived were, thankfully, still conversing, oblivious to the mini panic attacks happening in front of them.

"Do you think they'll recognize you?" Asked Ava "To them, you're only like, 14."

Sara shook her head "They'll know."

Footsteps were quickly approaching, and Ava had to think fast. She unzipped the duffel bag they had brought in, and rummaged around until she found what she was looking for.

"What are you doing?" Asked Sara

"Not breaking time." Said Ava as she put a flowy sun hat on Sara's head to hide her face and hair.

immediately after Sara had been disguised, Corey lead Quentin and Dinah Lance into the room, followed by another couple.

Everyone took their seats and Corey stood in the front of the room.

"Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us at the Bethany Beach Week-Long Romantic Getaway." 

There was some light cheering and clapping among the couples before Corey continued.

"During this magical experience, you and your lovebug will become closer and your relationship will thrive as you participate in activities, meet other couples, and most  
importantly, spend some quality time together."

"Did he really just say the word lovebug?" Ava whispered to Sara.

"Shh." said Sara, elbowing her... friend in the ribs.

"This week's schedule includes many fun events such as ballroom dancing, trust exercises, mini-golfing, dinner parties, and sight seeing around this wonderful beach." said Corey.

Sara was impressed. This seemed like a high-class getaway, one that she didn't know the Time Bureau had the budget for.

Corey continued his speech "Well, I'm done talking, so I guess it's time for you all to pick your rooms. Everyone will be staying on the second floor of the beach house in one of our five luxurious bedrooms. I'll see you guys at dinner in a few hours. For now, just relax. If you need anything, I will be down here."

As the couples got up to go to their rooms, Ava and Sara exchanged a look. They thought they would be getting their own beach house, rather than just a room. This was a lot more time together than they had planned for.

Ava knew what Sara was thinking "We'll be fine. This beach house is huge, there'll probably be at least a couch or something in there."

Sara nodded "Before we put our stuff away, I feel like we should address this."

Ava gulped, not knowing what her... friend was referring to "Address what?"

"You know, my parents being here."

Ava was relieved "Yeah, you're right. Hopefully we'll catch the time guy before the week is over, so we won't have to sneak around them for long."

Just then, Sara had been hit with a realization "Wait, we won't have to either way! They'll have to go back home in a day or two because I break my wrist by falling off of my skateboard!"

"Yay?" said Ava

Sara laughed "Yes. Yay is correct. Do you think we'll be able to pull this off?"

"Yeah. We just need to keep your face and maybe your hair hidden from them. Sunglasses could help."

"Between sunglasses and hats, I think we'll be good." said Sara "I used to sneak around with boyfriends as a teenager, but this is a whole new level."

Ava smiled "So, should we go up to the luxurious bedroom?" She asked, quoting their over-enthusiastic getaway director.

"Sure thing, lovebug."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this chapter was originally titled "Lovebug" but @LottieMockett convinced me to change it to what I originally wanted to name it, so that happened.


	5. One Problem After Another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Sara and Ava continue their mission, they run into more than a few bumps in the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I'm glad you all are liking this fic so far! I don't know if I'll do another update until Monday, but we'll see.
> 
> As always comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. I love hearing your thoughts!
> 
> Enjoy!

Upon opening the door to their room in the beach house, Ava and Sara were faced with yet another problem.

It was a nice bedroom, that wasn't the problem. The problem were the hidden microphones and cameras. They weren't out in the open or anything, but they were visible to Ava.

She placed the suitcase and duffel bag in the room and without taking a second look at their new living situation, she grabbed the Motorola she had in her pocket and took a picture of her and Sara in the room.

Sara was visibly confused at the sudden change in activity. She gave Ava a look and before she could ask anything, Ava cut her off.

"That's a nice picture, we'll definitely be sending that one to our friends, right babe?"

Sara still didn't really know what was happening, but she played along. "Yeah, definitely."

"Did we have three bags? I think we had three bags." said Ava, continuing their fake conversation.

"I don't know, do you want to go back to the car and check?"

Ava nodded "Yes." she said.

The two women walked downstairs and out to the Jeep.

Once outside, Sara looked at Ava with a confused expression, identical to the one she was making moments ago. "What was that about? I didn't even get a good look at the room."

"There were cameras and microphones everywhere. I don't know if we will be able to talk at all."

Sara rubbed her temples "Okay, that sucks. But what was the selfie about?"

Ava smiled, satisfied that Sara was acknowledging her detailed plan "Well, I got the camera and microphone systems in the background of the picture, so we need to send this picture to Zari so that she can figure out what we're up against."

Sara was impressed. "Wow. Should we send them to her now?"

Ava tossed her phone to Sara. "I already did, along with an explanation of what's going on, and a status update."

"Nice." Said Sara "Now we just need to wait for the team to reply."

Just as she said that, Ava's phone started playing the intro to 'Bye Bye Bye' by NSYNC and the agent grabbed her phone back and answered it.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey." Replied Zari "So, here's what I was able to find out from what you gave me. The cameras are crappy, so are the microphones. Probably because you're in 2001. Whomever placed them there, isn't using future tech."

"What does that mean for us?" asked Ava

"Well," said Zari "For starters, they're not night-vision cameras, so as long as it's dark, you'll be fine. Also, the microphones, especially since they're that small, are not super great at picking up low noises, so if there's any background stuff going on, like a rainstorm or lawn-mowing, the mics won't be able to pick up whatever you're saying. You'd also be okay just whispering."

"Okay. Anything else?" asked Sara, leaning into the flip phone.

"Yes, I think that this guy is probably using the cameras and microphones on an alternating schedule."

"What do you mean?" Asked Ava

"This guy's probably using the cameras during the day when it's light out, and the microphones at night to catch what the cameras don't. I can look into it."

"Yes, please look into it." said Sara "You can just cal us when you find-"

Zari cut her off "Found it. Yep, it's on an alternating schedule. Camera are on from 7am-7pm and microphones are on all night."

"Nice. Thanks Zari." said Sara, grabbing the phone and hanging up.

"Well, this sucks a lot less now." said Ava

Sara nodded. "We can talk about stuff during the day, we just have to act like we're dating, which shouldn't be hard, and at night we'll be sleeping anyway."

"You think it'll be easy for us to pretend to be a couple?"

Sara regretted her word choice "I guess. We just have to act like normal, but add in some cuddling."

Ava tilted her head and smirked at Sara. She knew she had the shorter woman backed into a metaphorical corner.

Before Ava could say something, Sara decided to change the subject. "NSYNC, huh?"

"It's 2001, give me a break."

"I have a feeling that your current ringtone isn't much different."

"Let's just go back and actually get a chance to look at our room, it'll look suspicious if we spend too much time outside."

Sara nodded and began to head inside when she noticed something. She stopped abruptly and grabbed Ava's arm.

Ava turned around "What?" she asked

Sara maintained eye contact "Aves, can you tell me what colour the Jeep is?"

Ava was still confused "Black. Why?"

"What colour was it when we pulled into the driveway?"

The realization was beginning to hit "White..."

"And what colour was it five minutes ago?"

By now Ava knew what the captain was getting at "White."

"Now, unless the bureau has magic colour changing Jeeps, we have a problem."

Ava began to pace "Maybe it has something to do with us being near the guy destroying the bureau."

Sara started pacing alongside the agent "Or maybe it has something to do with my parents being here at the same time as me."

Ava nodded "Yeah, that's a possibility."

"Do you think this is a super big problem?"

"Not yet, but it could escalate."

"My parents are leaving in a day or two. If they're what's causing this, it'll blow over, but if not, then we can look into it."

Ava nodded and stopped pacing "That sounds like a good plan. We should probably get back inside."

"Good idea." said Sara

The couple walked back into the beach house and up to their room. They opened the door again and grabbed their stuff to put on their individual beds.

However, there was a problem. 

And that problem was that there was only one bed.

"How did we not expect this? Like, seriously, it's not like anything else has gone as planned." said Sara.

The two women were standing in front of the bed in identical stances with their hands on their hips, trying to decide their next move.

The bed was small. By the looks of it, it was just a tad smaller than a regular sized queen bed. Perfect for an engaged couple, not so much for co-workers.

Sara looked around the room, scanning for a couch or a padded armchair, anything that could be slept on. All that she saw was a metal folding chair.

"This place has a master bathroom, a huge closet, a TV, but not an armchair?" Ava wondered aloud.

"I can sleep on the floor, I've dealt with worse." said Sara, grabbing a pillow.

"No, you're not sleeping on the floor for a week."

"Then we can alternate."

Ava considered the offer. "Maybe, but what about the cameras?"

"You're right." said Sara "It would look super suspicious, and what if someone walks into the room."

Ava nodded "That would definitely require some explaining."

The two women thought for a few moments and the room was quiet.

Sara sighed "Well, I guess that if it's the only option..."

"We could..." continued Ava

"Share the bed." Said Sara 

"Sleep on the beach." Ava said at the same time.

Sara raised her eyebrows.

"Okay, maybe sharing the bed is a better idea."

"Attention couples, our first activity starts in 10 minutes!" Corey yelled from downstairs.

Ava looked to Sara "We should probably get changed."

Sara nodded "Yeah, probably."

They looked at each other for about 10 seconds.

"I guess I'll go into the bathroom." Said Ava

"What about the cameras?"

"I'm not changing in front of cameras! This isn't some time traveler's free pornography."

"Yeah, but this guy can't know that we suspect anything."

Ava nodded "Right." she was still holding her clothes, but now instead of looking hesitantly at the cameras, she was looking hesitantly at Sara, who was already unbuttoning her own shirt.

"I've seen shirtless women before, you can change in front of me, it's okay." said Sara

Ava still looked hesitant 

"I won't look if you don't want me to." offered the captain, she was now standing in nothing but a black lace bra and dark jeans. 

Ava may not have been ready to admit it yet, but Sara looked hot.

The taller woman decided to just change in front of Sara and she pulled her shirt over her head and grabbed a dressier one from the suitcase.

"You ready for dinner?" asked Ava

"Let's go." said Sara. 

Before they reached the door, Ava stopped.

"Wait, what about your parents?" 

"Right." Said Sara as she put her hair into a ponytail and grabbed her glasses from the duffel bag.

"How's this for a disguise?" she asked 

"It's good. I didn't know you had glasses." 

"I don't. They're fake."

"You brought fake glasses to a couples retreat?"

"Yeah, I thought they'd make me look smarter." said Sara "It it working, Liz?"

Ava smiled and shook her head "I haven't decided yet, Cassie."

Sara grabbed the agent's hand "Well then, let's go to dinner."


	6. Fraternizing With The Locals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara socialize with the other couples over dinner, hoping to find information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! AvaLance comes back to us tonight! In other news, I set this for 12 chapters, but that's just an estimate. I may have more or less than that, but we'll see.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! Reading your comments always makes me smile :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Dinner was outside on the backyard deck of the beach house. It was beautiful. You could see the ocean in the distance and the ground was a mixture of grass and sand. You could even smell the ocean over the smell of the burgers that were being flipped on the grill.

Sara and Ava took their seats at the picnic table that had been set up and it wasn't until then that they realized they had been holding hands. Sara was the first to break contact, grabbing two paper plates from the stack on the table and handing one to Ava.

Across from the two women were Sara's parents. That posed as a potential issue, but there were other couples to talk to over the course of the dinner.

"So where are you two from?" Asked the man sitting next to Sara. She looked at the name tag pinned to his shirt. It read 'Devon'.

"My fiance Liz and I are from Washington D.C." Sara replied. She and Ava had never discussed where their engaged personas were coming from, but Sara feared that if she   
mentioned Star City, it would start a conversation with her parents and that's not what they needed at the moment.

"That must be nice. The beach is only about an hour or two from there. My girlfriend, Anika, and I are coming from Baltimore." said Devon "Go Ravens." he added.

At the mention of Baltimore, the Pittsburgh sports fan inside of Ava died, but she was able to work through it. "Traffic up there must be brutal." 

The girlfriend, Anika, laughed "You can say that again."

They talked for about another minute before Ava excused herself to go and get more mustard and Sara followed her.

"Any thoughts on those two?" asked Sara

Ava thought about it for a minute "No. They seem pretty normal."

"Okay, but do they seem like, too normal?" 

"No. Other than the fact that they chose to live in Baltimore, of all places, they seem like nice people."

Sara nodded and her eyes wandered to the burger Ava had on her plate. "That's a lot of mustard."

"This is an appropriate amount of mustard."

"No amount of mustard is appropriate, mustard is gross."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that because I don't want to fake fight on our fake couples weekend to this fake couples getaway."

Sara shrugged "That's fair."

The two women walked back to the picnic table and reclaimed their seats.

"Damn, that's a beautiful sunset." Said one of the guys opposite of Ava. She tried to recall his name. George! That was it.

Everyone's eyes had turned to face the sky, and it truly was beautiful. The sky was a perfect blend of yellows and oranges and pinks, and the way the clouds framed the array of   
light was breathtaking.

After a few blissful moments of enjoying the setting sun, the focus went back to conversing with one another.

Sara turned to the couple of men in front of her "Hi, I don't believe we've had a chance to talk yet. My name is Liz, this is my fiance Cassie."

George reached out and shook the hands of Sara and Ava "I'm George and this is my husband Jason."

Jason still seemed nervous and Ava recalled the mental note she had made earlier.

"It's nice not being the only same-sex couple here." said Ava "Usually when Cassie and I go out to these kinds of things we're lost in a deep sea of heterosexuality."

That got a laugh out of Jason "Same here."

"So are the two of you new to couples getaways?" asked George

"Relatively." answered Sara "This is the longest one we've gone to. Most of them are only for the day."

Suddenly, George got a knowing look on his face and he leaned in to the couple. "You do know what happens at overnight couples getaways, right?" 

Ava looked confused and looked to Sara for an answer. Sara realized that Ava honestly didn't know what George was referring to and Sara didn't know how to explain this to her.

"I'm gonna give you a minute, babe." said Sara

When Ava finally got it, her face went on a journey. First it was realization, then it was fear, then for a brief moment it was amusement, and then to calm. "I get it now." she said to Sara.

Jason and George had got up to socialize with another couple, and Sara and Ava had some time to discuss their thoughts on the mission.

"What do you think of them?" asked Ava

"Jason seemed kinda shady." replied Sara

"That's what I noticed when we were talking earlier. We should keep an eye out for him."

Sara nodded "True. He may just have social anxiety or something, though."

"We can never be too careful."

"You want to go socialize some more? Asked Sara

Ava nodded "Good idea."

The two women walked over to the young newlywed couple that Ava had conversed with in the living room a few hours before. 

"Hi." said Sara "I don't believe we've met. I'm Cassie." she said, waving to the couple.

The woman reached out and shook Sara's hand "I'm Anna and that's Steve." she said. The way she was smiling at Sara gave Ava an unwanted ping of jealousy in the pit of her stomach.

"It looks like everyone's going inside. Do you guys maybe want to see if the other couples want to play a game of trivial pursuit?" offered Steve.

"Sure." Said Sara, her eyes still on Anna, who now that she thought about it, didn't have black hair when she and Ava had arrived.

"Well then, may the best couple win." Joked Ava.

"May the best couple win." repeated Anna.


	7. Faking It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara have to get creative in order to make it through their first night in the beach house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter was one of my favourites to write, I hope you guys like it. In other news, I need some AvaLance prompts for a valentines day fic! 
> 
> If you have any ideas, please feel free to contact me on tumblr @sanvers-deserved-better and/or twitter @ellalancelot!
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. You guys never fail to make me smile :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Couples Jenga was... interesting, to say the least. In theory it was a good idea, but in practice it most likely ended in an argument about whether or not it was a good idea to go for a bottom piece in the fourth round.

Sara learned that if she were in a life or death situation with Ava that involved the agent balancing stacked wooden planks, they'd both be dead.

By the end of the game, it was about 9:00pm and all of the couples were almost too drunk to stand.

Ava and Sara had their fair share of drinks as well, but both knew better than to get anything more than tipsy. It could jeopardize the mission or even result in one of them making a stupid mistake, and none of those things needed to happen.

The two women finished boxing up the game and trudged up the stairs to their room. Sara closed the door behind them and everything was nice... that is, until the pair was reminded of the issues with their rooming situation.

Ava pointed to the hidden microphone and Sara nodded, signifying that she understood. Sara then got an idea. She walked over to the nightstand and opened the first drawer, just as she thought, there was a small pad of stationary with the beach's logo on it, and a pen.

Sara picked up the pen and started writing

 _Noice._ she wrote on one of the papers. She then peeled it off and gave it to Ava.

The agent nodded, pleased with Sara's idea.

Just then, the loud noise of somebody hitting the shared wall of the two bedrooms echoed through Sara and Ava's room, startling the two women.

"What was that?" whisper-shouted Ava "Should I go in and check on them? Maybe it's our guy!" 

Sara was trying to hold back laughter and Ava just stared at her in confusion. 

"What's funny?"

Sara cleared her throat "You do know what happens at overnight couples getaways, right?" she said, quoting what George had said hours earlier.

Ava paused for a moment to listen in on the events happening outside their room and came to the same conclusion that Sara had "Yikes. It's a good thing we're..." Ava paused. 

She walked over to where the notepad and pen were and wrote _not a couple_ on a sheet of paper.

Sara nodded, before she came to yet another problematic realization. "Okay, but in this scenario, we're newly engaged." she whispered.

"Yeah, so?"

"The walls are super thin. People will notice if we're silent."

"And that's a problem?"

"It'll look weird if we're not... you know."

"I'm not following."

Sara sighed "We're a young, newly engaged, couple in a fancy beach house at a romantic couples getaway and everyone around us is having sex."

"Are you asking me to sleep with you? Because I'm dedicated to my job, but not that dedicated." 

"No! Well.. no! But I mean, if it's the only option, I could give you the amazing experience that is sleeping with the one and only Sara Lance."

"Get over yourself! We have to think of something else. We could say we're like, super religious and are waiting until marriage."

"No. That's an outdated standard. Also, neither of us are straight, so I don't anybody will but that we're super religious. Besides, I don't want to get roped into a conversation with one of the other couples here about religion."

Ava nodded "Good point." Maybe it was the alcohol talking or maybe it was from being in the room with Sara or maybe it was just sheer adrenaline talking, but Ava had an idea"Well, I guess we could fake it."

"What do you mean?" Asked Sara

"We could bang on the walls and moan and stuff for like, 15 minutes."

Sara was laughing again "You do realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?"

Ava started laughing too "Well yeah, but it's better than the alternative."

"Arguably." said Sara "But it sounds fun."

"Okay, so how long should we pretend to do this?"

"I don't know. Maybe like, 20 minutes? I want this to be long enough that it's believable, but I don't want to feel like we're bragging."

Ava laughed at that "20 minutes sounds good."

"You ready to do this?"

"We've gotten this far into the conversation, I don't see why not."

"Let's get started." Ava walked over to one of the walls and lightly threw her body into it, provoking a light thudding noise.

Sara walked over to Ava and kicked the wall, causing another thud.

Ava made a groaning noise and Sara had to cover her mouth to stop herself from bursting into a fit of laughter.

When Sara composed herself, she leaned backwards and threw her body onto the bed, a lower pitched 'thunk' coming out as a result of the action.

Ava walked over to the bed and hit the headboard a few times.

"Harder!" yelled Sara, her voice cracking from trying not to laugh.

This time, without even trying, a creak came from the bed when Ava grabbed onto it to brace herself from the fit of laughter she was going into.

Sara hit the mattress a few more times.

Ava had regained composure and was now moving onto words, rather than sound effects "Oh! Yes Cassie! Baby!" she said.

A snort came out of Sara as a result of her trying to remain silent and fight the laugh that was desperately trying to escape.

Ava and Sara made eye contact and both knew what this had turned into. 

It was a game of chicken. First to be incapacitated by laughter, lost.

Sara was not one to step away from a challenge, so she decided to step up her game "Oh, god Liz, Yeah! There it is!"

Ava closed her eyes for a moment after that before taking a deep breath and standing up on the bed and shaking the headboard with both hands "Fuck yes!" she yelled, her voice cracking in two different places.

"Almost there, baby!" Said Sara, moving back to the wall to hit it some more.

Sara heard Ava let out a seal-like moan from the bed and it almost broke her. Almost. Sara still had a few tricks up her sleeve.

She let out an almost identical seal-like moan, but higher pitched and she could have sworn that she saw a tear roll down Ava's cheek in a final attempt to contain her bursting laughter.

Sara thought she had this little competition in the bag. That is, until Ava lost her balance and fell off the bed, nearly taking the bedside lamp with her.

That was about it for the both of them. There was no clear winner or loser because soon, both women were next to one another on the floor, laughing themselves to tears, unable to breathe.

It took about ten minutes, but soon they had both calmed down enough to speak.

"Well, that tired me out." said Sara.

Ava nodded "Same."

"I guess we should get ready for bed." suggested the captain.

"Well," started Ava, leaning in closer to Sara so that she could whisper "The cameras are off so I can go into the bathroom to change."

Sara nodded, slightly disappointed that they couldn't continue their playful banter about the dressing situation.

Ava stood up and offered a hand to Sara, pulling her up from the carpeted floor beneath them.

____________________

After the two women were changed and had their teeth brushed, the pair found themselves in the exact situation they had been in hours before.

Standing in front of the bed, looking at it as if it were a literal elephant in the room.

"How do you want to do this?" asked Sara

"Well, It's too risky to do the floor thing, and I'm too tired to walk out to the beach this late, so I guess we're stuck with option number three." Said Ava, thinking out loud.

Sara walked over to the right side of the bed and laid on it so that she was on the very edge. The assassin slept on her side, so there was a decent amount of room.

Ava followed suit, crossing to the other side of the bed and lying down at the very edge, leaving at least two and a half feet of space between her and Sara.

It wasn't ideal, but it was somewhat comfortable and it worked. Ava used the bed sheet as a blanket because she didn't tend to get as cold as Sara did. Sara took the large blue comforter.

Ava reached over and turned off the bedside lamp that she had almost knocked over. 

"Goodnight, Captain Lance."

"Goodnight, Agent Sharpe."


	8. The Perfect Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava experience their first activity day at the couples getaway.
> 
> Warning: Extreme Cuteness Ahead!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you all like this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it, and it ended up being a lot longer than I expected. Some of the events taking place in Ocean City were based on some of the stuff I did up there with my family.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Like seriously, your comments always make my day :)
> 
> Enjoy!

**8:00 AM**

When Sara woke up she felt strangely at ease. She hadn't felt this safe in a long time, and she had even slept in.

It took the captain a moment to realize she wasn't alone in the bed. She silently prayed that she was being held by a dog, or perhaps a warm pillow, but when she turned over onto her side, she was greeted by the sleeping face of Ava Sharpe.

Sara assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that there was no chance of her getting out until Ava woke up.

They had managed to be completely tangled into one another. Sara's body on Ava's right arm, her left tightly holding onto Sara, with their legs in a tangled mess.

Sara decided to take advantage of the situation and lay there until Ava woke up. After all, it felt nice being held by somebody like this.  
____________________________

**8:05 AM**

When Ava woke up she immediately panicked. She was spooning Sara.

Well, it wasn't technically spooning because they were too tangled up in one another, but there had been some hard core cuddling going on while they were unconscious.

Ava tried to get her arm out from under Sara, but she had no such luck.

The agent weighed her options and decided that staying here, like this, until Sara woke up, wasn't the worst idea, so she relaxed into Sara's warm body.  
______________________________

**8:10 AM**

Sara was wide awake when she felt some light movement from Ava's arm under her body.

 _She moved, right? That was Ava stirring. So is she awake? Is she awake and holding me? Maybe I should just get out of bed. No! Then Ava will wake up and notice that we're cuddling. You know what, I'm just gonna do it. I'm just gonna get out of bed... in two minutes._  
_______________________________

**8:11 AM**

Ava had heard a rustling of sheets coming from Sara's side of the bed and assumed this meant that the captain was waking up.

 _Oh good, she's waking up. Wait, what if she's trapped by my arm? Should I move it? No! Then she'll know you're awake... assuming she's awake. No! We're not doing this whole inner monologue thing again. Just get up out of bed... in one more minute._  
________________________________

**8:12 AM**

_I'm just going to do it._  thought Sara _three, two one._

 _I'm just going to do it._  thought Ava _three, two one._

Suddenly, both women jolted awake and untangled their limbs in record time, jumping over to their sides of the bed after doing so.

The couple looked at each other, neither woman wanting to discuss the situation they were in moments before.

"Morning." said Sara.

"Morning." replied Ava.

"We should probably get down stairs for breakfast." said Sara.

"Good idea."  
There was still an awkward kind of tension between the two women as they walked down into the kitchen together, but they were forced to overcome the unconventional atmosphere and pretend to be a couple again.

Ava grabbed Sara's hand and intertwined their fingers as the pair made their way to the bottom of the stairs, walking into the kitchen.

Steve and Anna were sitting at one of the tables and Anna seemed awfully ready to strike up a conversation with Sara.

"Are you excited to get out of the house today?" she asked, causing Ava to unconsciously tighten her grip on Sara's hand.

"Yeah, I wonder what we'll be doing." Sara responded politely.

Ava looked through the pantry before deciding on a box of cereal. She pulled out the purple Raisin Bran box and set it on the counter as she picked up a bowl.

Sara, however, decided to go for the colourful box of Lucky Charms.

"How can you eat that?" asked Ava.

"What do you mean? It has marshmallows, that automatically makes it taste good."

Ava made a fake disgusted face before grabbing the milk carton and pouring it into her empty bowl.

"Really? You have the _nerve_  to make fun of my cereal choices when you put your milk in first?" Sara teased.

"Putting milk in first? As opposed to what?"

"Being normal."

"The cereal gets soggy if you put the milk in last." Ava protested.

"Yeah, that extra second of milkiness really diminishes _my_  argument."

"And that is?"

"the argument that you need to put in the cereal first in order to properly determine how much milk you're going to need!"

Ava playfully rolled her eyes "Whatever."

The two women were so wrapped up in their dispute that they didn't realize the other couples that we're watching them in awe.

"You two are the _cutest_!" exclaimed George.

Sara smiled at Ava "I guess we are."

_______________________________

Once all the couples had woken up and eaten breakfast, Corey came downstairs to brief everyone on the day's activities.

"For today we will all be meeting down on the boardwalk around 11:00, and then we'll go on a surprise adventure!" he said.

"Surprise adventure. Sounds interesting." Said one of the guys whom Sara was pretty sure was named Devon.

Corey continued "After that, you guys will have the rest of the afternoon to yourselves! Go ahead and get ready to meet up."

Everyone nodded.

"Oh, and one more thing" added Corey "I hope none of you have a problem with getting wet."

At that, Sara choked on her orange juice.

"Don't say it." whispered Ava. "Just don't."

Sara frowned. "Fine."

_________________________________

The couple had gotten dressed and was now in the car on the way to the location Corey had given them.

"So what do you think we're doing here?" asked Ava in hopes of making some light conversation

"I don't know. Maybe some like, trust exercises in water."

Ava smiled "I was thinking something more along the lines of group skinny dipping."

Sara made a face "Ugh, I hope not."

"What do you think of being undercover? You know, so far."

Sara considered "It's kinda fun. I'm not the best actress, but It's been nice hanging out at the beach. Plus, I've gotten to hang out with you."

That made Ava blush and she put on her sunglasses in hopes of hiding the red colouring of her face.

After a rousing 10 minutes of Ava trying to parallel park in a space that was much too small for her Jeep, and Sara yelling at her, they had arrived at their destination.

"We're not going to be able to get out of here." Said Sara, referring to the Jeep that was wedged between a minivan and a Corolla, with barely five inches bumper to bumper.

"You know what, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." replied Ava as the two women started to where the other couples had gathered.

As they got closer to the dock, Sara reached for Ava's hand and laced their fingers, which was strange given the fact that nobody could clearly see them.

Ava didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so she just brushed it off and continued walking over to the dock.

When she arrived, she saw three other couples, Corey, and a boat. Nothing abnormal, yet Sara was now leaning into Ava's side, their hands still intertwined.

"We're still waiting on Devon and Anika, so you all can talk among yourselves while we wait." said Corey.

Ava pulled Sara aside so that they were out of earshot from the other couples. "You okay?" asked Ava.

Now that she had a good look at the blonde's face, Ava could tell that Sara clearly wasn't okay. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.

The shorter woman shook her head and Ava searched her face for even the tiniest hint of an answer.

She had never seen the captain this way before, and it was kind of scary.

"What's wrong?" asked Ava.

Sara gulped "Boat." was all she could manage.

Ava furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and then it hit her.

She had a brief flashback to when she first heard of the Legends, when she first read about them, when she had first read Sara's file.

If Ava had remembered correctly, there was something in there about Sara being reported dead... after drowning... after falling out of a boat.

There it was.

Ava took herself out of her thoughts and looked back down at Sara, who was still freaking out.

In that moment, all Ava wanted to do was hug Sara. To hold her and make her feel safe until she felt normal again.

But, she couldn't.

"Nothing is going to happen." said Ava.

"Nothing was supposed to happen last time." retorted Sara.

Even while having a mental breakdown the captain was still stubborn and quick-thinking.

"Last time was different. The weather is perfect, and there's no chance of a random sea storm."

"Yeah, sure, the weather may be perfect, bu that doesn't take away from the fact that somebody on that boat is literally trying to stop you from existing."

"That won't happen." said Ava, her voice now softer. "You're a badass."

"Yeah, a badass who can't breathe underwater."

"You'll be okay. You have me. Hell, you even have your parents, though it may be weird for you to seek comfort in them since they think you're a stranger."

That got Sara to laugh and seeing Sara happy again made Ava feel something in her chest that she decided to ignore for the time being.

"We should probably get back to the group." Said Ava.

Sara nodded and started beck to the dock alongside Ava.

Sara stopped walking and the agent turned around.

"Aves?" asked the blonde.

"Yeah?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"Sure."

"Promise me that you'll stay with me. You know, during the thing."

Ava smiled and walked over to Sara. The agent grabbed the shorter woman's hand.

"Of course." she said.

Hand in hand, Ava and Sara remained connected for Corey's speech about how 'lovers are lucky to find each other in such a wide ocean' and whatever else he happened to talk about. Ava was having a bit of a hard time focusing due to Sara's head resting on her shoulder.

The only time the two women stopped holding hands was when they put on their life vests.

Sara was having trouble with the vest due to how puffy it was in comparison to her tiny arms.

Ava saw the shorter woman struggling and walked over.

"Need a hand?" she asked.

Sara nodded, gratefully.

Ava buttoned the straps on the vest and tightened them, trying not to think about how close they were.

Without stepping away, Ava looked up to meet Sara's eyes, that feeling in her chest coming back strong. Her eyes flickered to Sara's lips and she thought for a moment that maybe it was worth it to take this leap.

Before anything could happen, somebody decided to blow the horn on the boat, causing both women to jump.

Sara grabbed Ava's hand again. This was all starting to feel natural.

"You ready?" asked Ava.

Sara considered, before nodding.

The couples all boarded the boat. It was a bit small for all of them, but it wasn't cramped in any aspect.

The boat started to rock as the engine revved up and Sara's grip tightened.

Ava let go of her hand and instead put her arm around Sara, allowing the captain to settle into her.

"You're okay." Whispered Ava and Sara nodded.

The remainder of the boat ride went... better than expected.

Sara didn't have a panic attack and blow her cover, and Ava ended up talking to other couples and gaining some information that may prove to be useful.

When they got off the boat, Sara and Ava walked back to the forever colour-changing Jeep.

"We have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. What do you want to do?" asked Ava.

It was only 1:00, so they had plenty of time to hang out.

"I don't know." replied Sara "Anything you want to do?"

"We could go mini-golfing." suggested the agent. There were dozens of crappy theme parks and golf courses around the area, acting as tourist traps.

"Okay. Maybe afterwards we could walk around on the boardwalk." said Sara

"Bethany Beach doesn't really have a great boardwalk. We could go down to Ocean City Maryland. It's only 20 miles away. With traffic it's only a 45 minute drive."

"Okay, let's do it." said Sara

The two women got inside the Jeep, and though it took them 15 minutes and a 35-point turn in order to get out of their parking spot, they were on their way to Ocean City.

Much to their luck, they arrived in only a half an hour.

Ava found another parking space on the street (it was barely even a parking space considering the size) and thankfully, this time Sara wouldn't let her park there, so instead they found an almost empty parking lot at the far end of the boardwalk, opposite to the side with the amusement park.

"We've got a long way to go." said Ava.

"Then let's start walking." said Sara with a smile.

The two women started walking. They weren't holding hands this time, but the close proximity of their swinging hands was almost a dare to do so.

"Is that a dinosaur sculpture?" asked Sara

"Looks like it." replied Ava

To the left of the women, in the sand, there was a sculpture of a dinosaur skeleton meant to be climbed on by small children... and this case, Sara Lance.

Sara kicked off her sandals and took a running start to the sculpture. She immediately started climbing to the tallest point on the rib cage of the plastic dino skeleton.

She stood at the top with her legs apart and put her hands on her hips in an uncanny Wonder Woman pose.

Ava smiled from off the side and almost decided to join the blonde, when Sara jumped off, put her sandals back on and came back to Ava.

"That was fun." said Sara.

The women continued walking. They came across an arcade full of old pinball machines and carnival games, so they hung out there for a while.

Ava racked up a ton of points in the game where you have to shoot a target with a water gun, and Sara dominated at popping balloons with small hand darts, but neither woman succeed in retrieving a bear from one of the claw machines.

"Those are rigged." said Ava

"Agreed."

Just as Sara said that, a child no more than ten years of age picked up a bear in one shot, causing the two women to look at one another with varying amounts of shock and envy.

"Want to go find an ice cream place?" suggested Sara.

"Yeah, I think that's a great idea."

An ice cream shop on the side of the boardwalk wasn't at all hard to find because there was literally one every ten feet.

"One scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip." Said Ava to the teenager working behind the counter.

"Strawberry." said Sara.

The women were handed their ice cream cones and walked together some more, debating on which ice cream flavours were better and whether or not frozen yogurt was a necessary addition to society.

Neither knew how or when it had happened, but they were holding hands again.

It had just felt so natural.

Sara noticed first and broke the hold as she threw away the ice cream soaked napkins she was holding.

When Sara came back, she looked up to the sky. Somewhere along this journey, it had gotten dark out.

Not only that, but they had reached their intended destination at the amusement park portion that was at the end of the boardwalk.

Since it was evening and the sky was dark, the giant Ferris wheel was illuminating the world below it.

Sara took a moment to admire the scene. She always liked stupid tourist attractions like this.

"What are you waiting for? Let's do this!" said Ava, jogging into the park.

The women rode a series of rides, though Ava refused to go on any of the upside down ones because _'They look shady and I refuse to die by falling off of a ride called 'The Avalanche'_.

Finally, it was time for the big one. The moment they had been waiting for. The final adventure this day had been leading up to.

The huge-ass ferric wheel.

Sara and Ava got into line, and in fewer than 20 minutes, they were being seated into one of the rickety colourful fenced-in cars, starting their trip to the top.

Ava was anxiously looking out the window as they moved closer and closer to the ride's summit.

"What's the matter? Scared of heights?" teased Sara.

"I'm not scared of heights, I'm scared of _falling_  from heights which I feel is perfectly reasonable."

"Nobody is going to fall today." said Sara, though she had already broken that rule in a metaphorical sense sometime after Ava had sat with her on the boat.

When they reached the top, the ride stopped and Ava snapped to attention.

"Relax." said Sara, putting her hand on the agent's shoulder. "They always stop the ride when a car gets to the top. Look around. It's beautiful."

It was beautiful. Breathtaking, really. There was something about being up from so high and looking down at the colourfully lit beach and boardwalk that begged you to take it all in.

Sara was right, this was the best way to end a day in Ocean City.

Looking down, you could see everything you had done. Each happy memory. It was as if there was a movie replaying in chronological order.

The ride started moving again and Ava looked at the woman sitting next to her. It may not have been a birds eye view of the beach, but the sight of Sara Lance was just as breathtaking.

Soon enough, the ride was over and Sara and Ava walked out, taking their time as the strolled back onto the boardwalk.

"It's a pretty long way back to the Jeep." said Ava.

"I wonder what colour it'll be this time." said Sara. That earned a laugh from the agent.

"My money's on red." replied Ava.

"Race ya." said Sara and before Ava could reply, the blonde had taken off sprinting down the boardwalk.

Ava wasn't about to stand here and let her win that easily, so she took off behind Sara.

It didn't take Ava long to catch up. After all, she did have longer legs.

The two women ran next to one another at the same pace. Sara going a little faster than normal to make up for her short legs, and Ava going a little slower than normal so that Sara could easily run alongside her.

When they got withing twenty feet of the car, Sara sped up. She was now running at in incredibly high speed (Which was impressive since she was wearing sandals) and leaving Ava in the dust.

Sara reached the Jeep and was breathing heavily. Ava arrived seconds later, also breathing heavily.

It took a minute for the couple to catch their breath.

Sara was the first to speak up. "I won." she said with a smile.

"Whatever." replied Ava, playfully rolling her eyes.

They hopped into the Jeep and started driving again.

This time, the ride went faster due to lack of traffic. The ride was also quieter because both women were too tired to sustain a conversation, which was abnormal for Sara.

When they pulled into the driveway of the beach house, it was 10:30 at night.

All the lights in the house were off and all the cars were in the driveway. Everyone was presumably asleep.

Ava got out of the car and shut the door. Sara did the same.

When Ava started to walk into the house, Sara stopped her by grabbing her arm and spinning her so they were face to face.

"I have another idea." said Sara.

Ava knew where this was going. Or at least she thought. Ava was prepared for a kiss. She was prepared for Sara to stand on her tip-toes and lay one on her, just like she had pictured.

Instead, Sara said "Let's sleep on the beach." and left Ava standing there, dumbfounded.

The two women got their sleeping bags from the car and followed the short trail to the beach.

They found an empty area that was open to the public and laid the bags down, making sure that they were an appropriate distance from the rising tide of the ocean.

Sara laid down in her sleeping bag and rolled over onto her side to face Ava.

"Today was fun."

The agent nodded. She was struggling to stay awake almost as much as Sara was,

Sara yawned. "Goodnight, Ava."

"Goodnight Sara." Mumbled the taller woman.

And moments later, the two women drifted off into a peaceful sleep, lulled by the slow ocean noises, and comforted by each other's presence.


	9. We've Got This, Partner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Ava wake up on the beach and as things get easier within the mission, a theory about their time traveling criminal changes the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So originally, this chapter was supposed to be really long, but I had to break it up into chunks for the sake of sleep. Not to worry, I'll be updating tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that!
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! Reading your thoughts makes my day :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Sara awoke to the light, soft, sound of crashing waves echoing through her ears and a cool ocean breeze that was counteracting with the warm breath on the back of her neck.

She rolled over in her sleeping bag and was surprised and impressed by the fact that, even in sleeping bags five feet apart from one another on the beach, she and Ava ended up cuddling in their sleep.

Ava's eyes slowly started to open and she looked up at Sara who was now sitting up with her legs covered by her sleeping bag. The agent blushed, having realized that they woke up next to each other... again.

"What time is it?" asked Sara

Ava pulled out the flip phone that had now felt at home in the back pocket of her jeans.

"6:47."

"We probably have about 15 minutes until everyone in the house wakes up and starts looking for us."

Ava nodded "Yeah. Do you want to pack up and head back to the car?"

"Nah. We should hang out for a while. We have time. Besides, I'm afraid I'll lose my sanity if I have to spend too much time with those people."

Ava laughed at that "I agree. Do you have any leads on anyone?"

"Maybe Jason. Everybody else seems normal. Well, not normal. But not evil."

"That girl Anna seems kinda shady." said Ava. Anna had been giving her a weird vibe, especially because it seemed that she was overly interested in Sara.

"I guess. Maybe this time traveling asshole can shape shift into a girl." suggested Sara.

"Well, in that case, our job just got a lot harder."

Sara laughed "Yup."

Ava stood up out of her sleeping bag and pushed it away from her into the sand. Sara did the same.

When Ava looked at Sara, she immediately looked up to the blue sky and a redness quickly spread up her neck and across her face.

Sara was confused, until she noticed how cold her legs were. 

"I kicked my jeans off in my sleep and now I'm standing on the beach in my underwear, aren't I?" Sara asked without looking down.

Ava nodded with her gaze still adverted and her face still bright red.

"That's great." Sara said sarcastically as she fished through her sleeping bag and grabbed her pants.

Once Sara was fully clothed and Ava had pulled herself together, the women rolled up their sleeping bags and started walking back to the beach, right along the ocean tide.  
Ava had to stop every few steps because her flip-flops kept getting pulled off by the heavy sand.

"Why are you still wearing shoes? It's the beach! You're supposed to be barefoot. It's like, in the beach rule book."

Ava smiled and rolled her eyes. The Captain was infuriating sometimes, but she was also infuriatingly _adorable._

Sara stood there, waiting until Ava finally sighed and pulled off her shoes.

"Happy?"

"Yes." said Sara.

They contunued to walk back to the house and Ava almost instinctively grabbed the shorter woman's hand and laced their fingers, but she caught herself and put her hands in her pockets before she was consumed by the magnetic pull that was her need to be close to Sara.

Sara got a mischievous look on her face and before she knew it, Sara had kicked a handful of water onto Ava's bare ankles.

Ava quickly recovered from the shock and reached down with her hands, gathering and pouring the cold saltwater onto Sara's blonde hair, watching as the droplets cascaded onto her face and down her shirt.

Sara walked forward and backed Ava into the water so that her shins were soaking wet.

Ava grabbed Sara's arm and pulled her into the ocean with her. Sara was about to retaliate when a huge wave hit them, knocking the two women to the ground and soaking them in water from head to toe.

Somehow in the process of Ava and Sara getting pushed to the ground by the force of the water, they ended up in a position with Sara on top of Ava, holding herself up with her hands that were sinking into the sandy floor below them.

They ended up in this position because of course they did. Because for some reason, the universe decided to have some fun this morning.

Sara and Ava were looking at one another, and for a moment, Sara thought that maybe she could just go for it.

She slightly adjusted her hands and began to slowly lean down.

Then, the universe decided to tell another joke and before anything could happen, another wave came and pushed the two women apart, just as the previous one had pulled them together.

Sara stood up and spit saltwater out of her mouth. Ava stood up next and coughed up her own share of water.

The two women regained their ability to breathe and looked at each other. Both realized that looking at each other probably wasn't the best idea once they remembered that water caused clothing to cling to one's body.

"We should get back to the house." said Sara, looking everywhere /but/ at Ava.

"Good idea."  
___________________________________

Once Sara and Ava had showered (separately, or course) the two women headed downstairs to join the other couples for breakfast.

They all engaged in small talk for a few minutes and Ava noticed that Steve looked a bit uncomfortable anytime he was asked a detain question about his relationship with Anna.

Sara and Ava made eye contact and without speaking, agreed that they would talk about that later.

Suddenly, Sara's dad's phone rang and a wave of relief hit the blonde because she knew what the call was, and she knew that this mission was about to get a hell of a lot easier.

"Hello?" Quentin asked into the flip phone. "She did what?"

There was a pause that Sara assumed was Laurel explaining herself. The assassin's heart clenched at the crackling sound of her sister's voice that was coming from the phone.

Ava noticed this and put her hand on top of Sara's on the table.

"And where were you?" asked Quentin, his voice a mixture of fear and anger.

There was another pause.

"Oliver? I told you that boy was a bad influence!"

Another pause.

"Your mother and I will be home by dinner, okay? Drive your sister to the hospital."

There was another pause, but this one was shorter.

"Okay, bye. Love you."

Quentin hung up the phone and turned to his wife. "Sara broke her wrist by falling off her skateboard."

Sara's mother gasped "Well the I guess we have to get back to the city."

Ava and Sara exchanged a glance, sharing a small smile at the fact that they could stop sneaking around and Sara could stop wearing sunglasses indoors.

Sara's dad addressed the people at the table directly, most of whom looked worried for young Sara.

"We think out daughter just fractured her wrist, so we have to cut this trip short and head back home. It's been great meeting you all." he said, and with that, Sara's parents walked up to get their stuff and go back home.

About 20 minutes later, when the door to the beach house closed and their light blue minivan pulled out of the driveway, Sara and Ava silently high-fived under the table.

"That just changed the game." said Sara.

"Yeah, in a good way." added Ava.

"Things may have gotten easier, but knowing that our time traveling person would be a /woman/ may have just added a whole other level of shit to deal with."

Ava nodded "But we've got this, partner."

"We've got this, partner." repeated Sara.


	10. It's Not What it Looks Like

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara have to deal with a mini-anachronism while on their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm glad you all have enjoyed this fic so far! Prepare for some angst in the next few chapters... all I'm going to say.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! Hearing what you think makes me super happy as a writer!
> 
> Enjoy!

Today's activity was a trip to the Fenwick Island lighthouse. Nothing super huge, but Corey _did_  say that there would be a surprise activity later that night.

During the 15 minute car ride there, Ava and Sara had a chance to regroup and talk about the mission, though there was a somewhat tense environment due to the almost-kiss the two women shared on the beach that morning.

"So to recap, the time traveler could in theory be a girl, Anna, Jason, and Steve seem shady, and out job just got harder, but your parents are gone?" asked Ava.

"Yep." said Sara as she abruptly swerved the Jeep to avoid a pothole.

Ava knew she should have listened to that feeling in her gut that told her not to let Sara drive, but now it was too late and asking her to stop the car may just kill them both.

"Today's plan is to get to know the other couples a bit more and see if we can find anything out about them. We should also keep an eye on the shady people."

"All that, plus pretending to be in love with one another." Said Sara, though she was beginning to realize that she was needing to pretend less and less as the mission went on.

"What do you think tonight's 'surprise activity' will be?" Asked Ava.

"Not sure. Maybe something to do with cooking."

Ava nodded. "I had an idea the other night. Well, it was really more of a theory than an idea."

"Go on."

"Well, what if our guy is a team. I mean, it would be pretty hard to pull off the role of a couple that's known each other forever without the other person being in on it."

"Are you implying that we may be dealing with two time-travelers?"

"Maybe. Or we might be dealing with a time traveler and their partner in crime."

Sara groaned and drove head on into a speed bump, causing Ava to startle and jump out of her seat.

"Sorry." said Sara "You may not be able to park, but you're probably a better driver than I am."

Ava nodded and scrunched her nose in that adorable way that made Sara want to melt into a puddle. "Little bit."

Soon, the couple had arrived at the lighthouse and parked the car.

Ava pulled on the handle to open the car door on her side. "Shit, it's stuck." she said after wrestling with it for a minute.

"Let me try." said Sara and before either woman knew it, Sara had leaned across Ava and had her hand on the handle of the door, her body in close proximity to that of the agent.

It seemed that accidentally putting themselves in sexual positions was the universe's theme for today.

When Sara couldn't get the door to open, she quickly sat back in her seat. The captain looked around the Jeep for some clue as to why the door wasn't opening.

"Oh." said Sara, pressing a button "It was locked."

The two women stepped out of the car and met their group in the parking lot.

"Today we will be visiting the Fenwick Island lighthouse!" Said Corey in his over-enthusiastic tone that was starting to slowly drive Sara insane.

While Corey went into his whole speech about Fenwick island and how important this lighthouse was and whatever else he was rambling on about, Ava saw something, or rather, someone in the parking lot and prayed that her eyes were decieving her.

She leaned into Sara and stealthily whispered into her ear "Please, please, _please_  tell me that you don't see Elvis Presley sitting on that Prius."

Sara examined the figure before closing her eyes, sighing, and then opening them again. "That is most definitely Elvis Presley and he is most definitely sitting on a Prius."

Before Ava or Sara could do anything about this... surprise anachronism, the group started heading toward the lighthouse and the couple had no choice but to follow along.

"The public eye will probably just see him as an impersonator, so I think we'll have enough time to follow the group." whispered Sara.

Ava nodded "Sounds like a plan."

The trip to the lighthouse was actually a lot of fun. It was a great view of the ocean, and Ava had never been inside of a lighthouse before, so it was a new experience. 

The two women also gathered information about the couples. There was definitely some shady stuff going on between Steve and Anna, such as whispering and awkward physical interaction.

That was definitely something to keep on their radar.

After the lighthouse tour had ended, the couples had an hour to themselves before it was time to head back to the beach house for a "Surprise activity" at 4:00.

Ava and Sara were quick to get away from the group and they found a private section of the parking lot to his out in.

Elvis was still there, much to the luck of the two women, though he looked like he was looking for somewhere to go. Ava and Sara had to think fast.

"Should I call the team?" asked Sara.

"You're going to have to. I left my time courier in my suitcase, and they're our only chance for time travel."

Sara pulled out the iPhone she had smuggled and tried to dial her team, but it was no use.

"There's no service for that kind of phone. It's 2001." said Ava.

Sara slipped the phone back into the pocket of her jean shorts "Right."

"How can we contact your team? Do you think we could do the thing where we write a note and leave it on an object? Or maybe we could go back to the house and use the courier." 

While Ava was rambling along, trying to think of a solution, Sara had pulled a walkie-talkie out of her pocket.

"How much pocket space do you /have/?" asked Ava once she realized that Sara had a walkie-talkie.

Sara ignored her "Zari? You there? We've run into a mini problem."

There was a short pause on the other end of the line until Zari finally answered "Use the code names I came up with."

Sara rolled her eyes "No, I'm not using the code names."

There was a long pause and Sara knew that Zari wouldn't pick up until she used the code names.

The captain sighed "This is Mrs.Time Bureau to Lesbian Jesus, come in Lesbian Jesus."

"This is Lesbian Jesus to Mrs.Time Bureau, over."

"Elvis is at the beach. Over."

"Elvis Presley? Like, _the_  Elvis Presley? Over."

"Yes. Don't tell Ray or Mick. Over."

"Too late!" Came a voice from Zari's end of the line.

"Just come over and get rid of him. Over."

"You want us to _kill_  Elvis?!" Exclaimed another voice who Sara assumed was Nate.

"No, I want you to put him back where he goes. Over."

"Okay, we're on it. Lesbian Jesus, over and out."

The walkie-talkie clicked off and Sara turned to face Ava. "They're coming."

"When do you think they'll get here?" asked Ava.

Just as she said that, Ava heard a familiar voice coming from behind her. "We already did. We took care of the anachronism." said Amaya.

Sara smiled and hugged her friend "Thanks, you guys are the best."

"It was no problem." Said Amaya "How's..." she gestured between the two women "All of this going."

Sara was blushing. "The _mission_  is going very well. We have a few leads and my parents left, so we're a step closer to finding this time traveling guy."

"Your parents were here?" asked Amaya.

Ava smiled at Sara "It's a long story." said the agent.

Amaya had a knowing look on her face and Sara wished her friend wasn't as good at reading emotions. "I should get back to the team before Ray decides to stay in the 50's."

Sara smiled. "Bye." she said, and before she knew it, Amaya had disappeared onto the Waverider almost as quickly as she had arrived.

Ava looked at the wristwatch she was wearing and then back to Sara. "We should probably head back. The surprise activity starts in 20 minutes."

Sara nodded and opened the door to the driver's seat of the Jeep before Ava stopped her.

"I'm driving." said the agent.

"That's fair." said Sara, handing over the keys.

The ride back to the beach house was silent for a while, the only noise being Sara's light singing along to 'Uptown Girl.'

When the song ended, Ava decided it was time for some light conversation.

"Have you noticed any changes? You know, like how the Jeep keeps changing colours."

Sara thought about it for a minute "Anna's hair went from dark brown to blonde, but that might just be a sun thing."ly

Ava nodded, though something about Sara paying so much attention to that girl made Ava feel something that she swore wasn't jealousy.

"I'm worried something's going to change soon, but it's going to be big."

"What do you mean?" asked Sara.

"I don't know. Maybe like, the names and faces of the people here will change. That would suck."

"We'd have to start over." said Sara.

"Hopefully that doesn't happen, but..."

"We're due for some kind of a change." finished Sara.

___________________________________

About a half an hour later, all of the couples were gathered in the main living room, all were waiting for the "Surprise activity" that had been announced that morning.

Finally, Corey walked out with a stack of whiteboards and dry-erase markers and the conversations between the couples stopped.

"Now, I know you all may be wondering about what we'll be doing tonight, and I'm happy to tell you all that it's time for the big reveal."

There was some light clapping.

"Tonight's _Surprise activity_  is... Couples trivia!"

There were some excited whispers going on between the couples, but Ava and Sara looked at one another with identical looks of worry.

"Do we do this as Avalance or Lassie?" whispered Sara.

"What?" Ava whispered back.

"You know, AvaLance is you and me hence the name /Ava Lance/ and 'Lassie' is Liz and Cassie. What I'm asking is, are we doing this as our characters or ourselves?"

Ava considered before whispering her reply "Answer as /us/ for the ones that are like 'What's your partner's favourite colour.' Answer as our characters if it's a question like

'How did we meet'."

Sara nodded "Got it."

The two women thought for a minute before Sara spoke again. "Quick question, what's your favourite colour?"

"Blue." answered Ava right away.

Sara looked at Ava for a minute. "Blue." she repeated. "Like your eyes."

Ava smiled and was about to reply when Corey started talking again.

"Here's how the game works. Each of you will get a whiteboard and a marker. One of you will be person A and one of you will be person B. I'll ask one of you a question and not only will you write down your answer, but your partner will write down their answer. For each round where you and your partner have matching answers, you will receive a point. First team to 10 points, wins."

The couples nodded.

"Well then, let's get started!"

The questions started out fairly easy. Favourite colour, favourite song, favourite food. Ava and Sara were doing pretty well, especially for two people who weren't actually dating.  
by the fourth question, they were in the lead, tied for first place with Devon and Anika, the other couples not far behind.

Corey pulled a strip of paper out of the fishbowl he was using to hold the questions. "What is your partner's biggest annoyance?"

Sara had to answer for Ava on this one and the captain smiled, knowing the answer.

Ava flipped her board and it read in bright blue ink "MY FIANCE."

Sara smiled and flipped her board. In an identical shade of blue ink, it read "ME."

That earned a laugh from the people in the room and Sara and Ava smiled at one another.

The next three rounds were a blur. Ava and Sara were still doing pretty well, but they missed a question which set them back. Now, they were in a tie for second place with Steve and Anna, Devon and Anika still in first.

Corey reached into the fishbowl and let out a small laugh when he read the question. "Top or bottom?" he asked.

Ava and Sara made eye contact, both blushing profusely. Sara shrugged and wrote her answer down on the white board. Ava knew what Sara was writing down based on the amount of time it took her to write an answer.

When it came time for them to answer, Ava sighed and flipped her board to face the audience "Top ;)"

Sara smiled her signature suggestive grin (The same grin that was beginning to drive Ava up a wall) and flipped her board as well "Top ;)"

"You even got the winky face, wow!" said Corey.

Minutes later, it was time for the final question. It was a three-way tie for first. Devon and Anika, Steve and Anna, as well as Ava and Sara all had their game faces on.

"The final question... is... cat or dog person?" asked Corey with much more enthusiasm than necessary.

At this point, it was Sara's turn to answer for Ava, and she knew what her answer was. As Sara wrote it down, she remembered the day she and Ava had fought on the bridge and how far they had come since them.

Before she knew it, it was time for Sara to reveal her answer. She gave Ava a warm smile and revealed her board to the group. "Cats."

Ava smiled a smile identical to Sara's and turned her board as well "Cats."

The two women were still looking at one another when Corey announced the winners "Congratulations to Cassie and Liz for winning at couples trivia!"

The group cheered as the two women walked over to each other. It felt like the perfect moment for an in-character kiss and Sara couldn't be more glad. She had been waiting for a moment like this ever since she and Ava had done that one practice kiss that felt as if it had happened ages ago.

Ava walked over and placed her hand on Sara's shoulder, pulling her in for a short and light, yet passionate kiss.

In Sara's opinion, the kiss wasn't _nearly_  long enough, but still, it was enough to make the captain have trouble standing up.  
____________________________________

After dinner, Sara and Ava walked up to their room for the first time since they had changed clothes in the morning.

Right away, they noticed that things were different. The nightstand was on the left side of the bed, rather than the right, one of the four walls in the room was now blue, and there was a mirror on top of the dresser that hadn't been there before.

"I guess you were right when you said we were due for another change." mused Ava.

Sara nodded and crossed the room to take a seat on the bed. When she sat down, she noticed a difference.

"Of course." mumbled Sara.

"What?" asked Ava.

"The bed is smaller."

Ava looked the bed up and down and came to the conclusion that the bed had in fact, gotten a lit smaller.

The agent went to her side of the bed and laid down on the very edge, just as she had done in their first night. Sara did the same before sighing and standing up.

"You know what?" Asked Sara.

"What?" Asked Ava, standing up.

"We've tried sleeping apart from one another. We've even tried sleeping on the beach, and I think you've realized by now that we're both cuddlers."

"Your point?" asked Ava.

"We should give up on this whole 'We'll get cooties from sleeping next to each other' thing, and just start off spooning."

Ava was taken aback slightly by what the captain said. "I guess you're right. We're adults, we can handle sleeping in close proximity together."

Sara nodded and laid down on her side of the bed. Ava joined her. They weren't cuddling yet, but their arms were touching.

"So what are your thoughts mission-wise?" asked Ava. It was after seven, so they needed to whisper if they were to talk about their secret agenda.

"I think Anna and Steve are definitely shady."

Sara nodded "I could try and talk to Anna tomorrow morning. I have a feeling she'd talk with me and maybe even leak information about her or Steve."

"Okay. Tomorrow morning before breakfast you should try and talk with her."

The two women laid there in bed for a while before Sara turned onto her side, propping herself up using her elbow so that she could talk to Ava.

Ava did the same.

"Ava?" 

"Sara?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Sure." said Ava, not knowing where this was going.

Sara leaned into the taller woman and pressed a soft peck on her lips. Ava wanted to deepen the kiss, she wanted nothing more, but Sara pulled away before she could react.

Sara turned off the bedside lamp.

"Night, Sara."

"Goodnight, Aves."  
_____________________________

The next morning, Ava was quite dissappointed when she didn't wake up with the warmth of Sara's body heat. A warmth she had grown accustomed to.

The taller woman rolled out of bed and was surprised when she didn't see Sara.

Ava walked downstairs to the kitchen, assuming that the captain was up early, perhaps even talking to Anna.

Nothing.

Ava grabbed her sandals and walked out to the beach. The same beach that she and Sara had had a water fight on the morning prior.

The agent smiled at the thought of Sara and walked back to the house. When she reached the driveway, she heard movement coming from the Jeep.

Ava rushed over to investigate and when she opened the car door, she was hit with a crushing wave of heartbreak, and disappointment, and anger.

Sara was clearly making out with Anna in the Jeep. The captain acknowledged the taller woman and the blonde's face went on a journey at the sight of Ava.

"I hope the two of you had a great talk" said Ava, storming off into the house with tears in her eyes.

Sara called after her, as if it would make a difference.

"Aves, it's not what it looks like!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know, that was an evil thing for me to do as a writer. Don't worry, there will be another chapter soon.
> 
> All I'm going to leave you with for now is two words.
> 
> Trust Sara.


	11. Angst, Trust, and Cheesecake.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara has to find a way to make things right again after the events of chapter 10.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter was written in memorial for that AvaLance fandom after casual Ava in those promo pics killed us.
> 
> Also, sorry it took me so long to update, I had to re-write the first half after my laptop crashed :(
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! For real, reading your comments is the best part of my day :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Sara followed after Ava as she ran into the beach house with tears in her eyes. Once they were on the back deck, out of earshot from anyone else, Sara started talking"It's not what it looks like! Please, just let me explain!"

Ava turned around and crossed her arms "You don't owe me an explanation. We're not a couple? Remember? If you want to fuck some random girl in the back of our Jeep, then go for it." she said.

Her tone was cold, reminiscent of the tone she used when she and Sara had first met. They weren't friends back then. Sara supposed they weren't really friends now, but when Sara thought of her and Ava being something other than friends, this wasn't what she had in mind.

"It's not what it looks like."

"Really? You're telling me that you weren't just making out with _her_  in a Jeep when you said you were just going to talk to her?"

"Okay, maybe it _is_  what it looks like but it's not what you think. It wasn't like that. I got information."

"Like what? Her bra size?" Ava asked, ready to walk off into the house.

"Please." Sara said as a final plea. Her voice was starting to get shaky, but Ava could see that the captain was desperately trying to hold herself together.

"Look, we're not together and we're not friends so let's just finish the mission and get out of here so that we can return to our separate lives." Ava walked back into the beach house and Sara considered following her, but figured that it was probably in her best interest to let Ava have her space, no matter how much it hurt.

Sara sat down on the picnic bench and held her head in her hands. She had messed up. Bad.  
_____________________________________

**EARLIER THAT MORNING**

Sara woke up to the sound of the alarm she had set for herself. She needed to wake up early in order to get information from Anna. Her and Steve had been acting shady lately and Sara and Ava had decided that it would be a goo idea to try and talk to Anna in hopes of information.

She had a mission, and Sara had never been the type of person to sleep in, but today she felt herself not wanting to get out of bed. She was in the arms of Ava Sharpe and god, did she want to stay there forever, but Sara was able to bring herself to get up when she considered that maybe, just maybe, she would get to experience this after the mission was all said and done.

The blonde threw herself out of Ava's embrace and put on a pair of black jean shorts and a light grey button-up. She took one last look at the beautiful woman who was asleep in the bed they shared and walked out the door. Maybe if she got the information she was looking for fast enough, she could return to her morning paradise in Ava's arms.

When Sara got down to the kitchen Anna was there making coffee, just as she predicted.

"Hey." said Anna.

"Hey." repeated Sara as she dug around in the refrigerator for the cheesecake that had been left over from the previous night's dinner.

"Is Liz up yet?"

It took the sleep deprived assassin a minute to register who Anna was talking about.

"Oh, uh, no. She's still asleep." Said Sara "You and Steve are pretty cute together."

Anna smiled a mischievous smile "You know, I have something to tell you about Steve and I, but we need somewhere private."

Sara was thrilled. This was exactly what she had been looking for. _Ava is going to be so proud of me!_  she thought.

The captain led Anna to the Jeep.

"So, what did you want to ask me about Steve?" Asked Sara. The faster she could get through this, the sooner she could get back to Ava.

The mischievous smile grew "He's my best friend."

Sara was a bit confused. "That's good. Most successful relationships usually come from solid frie-"

"No, I mean he's just my friend. Well, roommate if we're being specific. He had a deal for this retreat, but he didn't know it was a couples thing, so he invited me along."

"Oh." said Sara, trying her best to keep her tone even.

"Yep. I'm gay, like, really gay."

"Oh." repeated Sara in the same even tone.

"I'm a free woman my dear." said Anna as she slowly reclined the passenger's seat.

"Look, I'm flattered, but Liz and I don't have an open relationship."

Anna raised an eyebrow "Really? Than who's this 'Ava' that I heard you whispering about?"

Sara was fucked. She knew she was fucked and in this particular situation, it was fuck or be fucked.

Anna leaned in to kiss Sara and the captain knew there was no way for her to explain who Ava was without blowing their cover, so she did what she thought was her best option.

Sara leaned over and kissed Anna. It was supposed to be quick, but Anna deepened the kiss and Sara decided that distracting her was a good idea.

Suddenly, the door opened and Sara silently prayed that it wasn't who she thought it was.

Sara whipped her head around. It was.

The look on Ava's face made Sara want to go back in time and just tell Anna about the damn mission. Anything to stop Ava from giving her _that_  look. The look that broke Sara's heart.

"I hope the two of you had a great talk" said Ava, storming off into the house with tears in her eyes.

Sara called after her, as if it would make a difference.

"Aves, it's not what it looks like!"

_________________________________________

**PRESENT**

Sara was still sitting there with her head in her hands when she heard Corey announcing something from inside the house "Couples! Gather in the living room!"

The captain sighed before standing up and walking through the screen door into the beach house and sitting on one of the stiff brown couches.

The rest of the group trickled in, as did Ava.

When Sara saw the taller woman, she was hit with an unexpected wave of heartbreak. Ava was wearing makeup, but Sara could tell that she had been crying.

Sara wanted nothing more than to hug Ava and talk to her and hold her hand, just as Ava did on the boat, but she couldn't. Not now. Not yet.

Ava sat down next to Sara, but she was sure to leave a one foot buffer between them. They were sitting up straight, their bodies guarded, stiff, and tense.

It was much different than the previous nights when they were sitting directly next to one another, arms linked or fingers laced. Back then it was as if their bodies were made to be sitting together.

"Today we will be working on... trust exercises!" Exclaimed Corey.

Ava didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.

They were doing trust exercises. Or course they were doing trust exercises. This was starting to feel like less of a mission and more of a sick, twisted, joke that the universe was playing on the two women.

Corey continued "First, the two of you will be baking together. It takes two people that trust each other to make something beautiful. Then, you will be learning to dance, trusting your partner to waltz you around the floor."

Sara was barely following. She needed to fix things, and she feared that she wouldn't be able to.

Corey must have said something about driving, because the couples stood up and headed to their respective cars.

Ava got up too, not even bothering to look back for Sara.

Sara stood up and caught up to Ava at the car.

The agent stepped into the Jeep, but when she sat down, she nearly fell backwards because the back of the seat was much lower than it should have been.

"It's reclined." Said Sara, trying to be as helpful as she could.

"Wonder why." mumbled Ava as she put the seat back to it's rightful position.

The ride was painfully quiet. 

Once they were on a highway, Sara decided that this was her chance.

"Let me tell you what happened." Said Sara, though it was more of a question.

Ava didn't respond.

"She kissed me."

"I don't need to hear this."

"But you do. Aves-"

"Agent Sharpe."

"Agent Sharpe, I she was telling me about Steve and-"

"Just, don't. You don't get to lock me in a moving vehicle where I'm forced to have this conversation with you."

"Well, that's what my mom did when she gave me the sex talk, and I didn't feel to happy about it then, but this is a conversation we need to have."

"Why?" asked Ava.

"Because I don't want you to hate me and in order for us to move past this, we need to talk, so ask me anything. Please."

Ava sighed and considered the offer for a minute. "You were kissing her back."

"I was." 

"Why did you make me go through this? Did you do this to brag or som-"

"No. I wouldn't do that to you and you know that."

Sara looked at Ava who had her jaw clenched. "Okay, so maybe you don't know that.

"Just make this easier for the both of us and tell me what important information you got."

"Okay, I can do that." Said Sara "I found out that they're not really dating. They're just roommates. Also, Anna's gay."

"Yeah, no shit."

"I guess we can dismiss the shadiness as a result of the fake dating thing."

Ava nodded. "I guess."

The rode in silence for a few more minutes "Why'd you do it?" asked Ava.

"She thought you and I had an open relationship. She said she heard us talking about somebody named Ava, so rather than explain myself and possibly blow our cover, I just gave her what she wanted and kissed her."

Ava felt a feeling of relief surge through her body, but she was still mad at Sara. Catching her in the van with Anna _hurt_  and it was going to take a while before Ava got over it.

They pulled into the driveway of some cooking studio and walked into the lobby.

"Okay, so in groups of two, you will all be going into your own mini-kitchens and cooking a mystery dish!" said Corey "At the end, there will be a panel of judges including myself who will be taste testing. Best food wins!"

The couples grabbed aprons and headed into their kitchens. Ava saw Anna wink at Sara and her heart dropped, but Sara shook her head at the other woman, so at least Ava wasn't totally pissed.

Sara walked into the kitchen after Ava and closed the door behind her "So, what's our recipe?" asked the blonde.

Talking in the car had helped, but the tension in the air was still thick.

Ava looked at the laminated card on the counter "Cheesecake." she said.

Sara nodded "Nice. I love cheesecake."

"What do we need to do first?" asked Ava.

"We need a pie tin or something." said Sara reaching up on her tip-toes to grab something from the top shelf.

She jumped for a minute before grabbing a hold of something and pulling it down.

There was a white, powdery explosion, and when the dust settled, Sara saw that she had knocked over an open bag of flour, and she and Ava were now covered head to toe in a thin layer of flour dust.

Ava coughed up a handful of the substance and used her hand to wipe some off her face.

Sara expected Ava to be mad. She expected to be yelled at. What she didn't expect was for Ava to smile for the briefest of moments before grabbing a handful of cream cheese and smashing it into Sara's face.

The captain dug her finger through the cold, thick, spread and tasted it, before swiping it off of her face and onto the flour covered floor.

When Sara saw that Ava was smiling again, she grabbed the bowl of jelly covered pre-cut strawberries and took cover under one side of the counter as she threw them at Ava as if they were tiny bullets.

The assassin, naturally had one hell of an aim, but Ava decided to take a different approach by going to the other end of the counter and using a measuring cup to launch cup fulls of milk onto Sara.

Sara reached behind her and opened the fridge. she grabbed the jar of pickle slices and threw those at Ava instead of strawberries.

"That's no fair! I thought we were only allowed to use cheesecake ingredients!" yelled Ava.

Sara smiled "What? You've never heard of pickle cheesecake?"

"No, and I wish I hadn't." said Ava. Her tone was sarcastic, buts she was smiling. Sara had missed this side of the agent.

"Well you're not allowed to complain about pickle cheesecake when you put pickles on your peanut butter sandwiches."

Ava pretended to be offended "Excuse you, that tastes good. And at least those are both somewhat similar foods."

"What are you getting at?" asked Sara.

"Oh please, I've seen you put Nutella on pizza."

"That was one time, and say what you want, at least Nutella is better than pineapple pizza."

"There is an entire group of people who enjoy pineapple on pizza who will fight you for me."

"Can you please make that happen?" asked Sara.

By now, both women were covered in food and laughing.

Ava looked at the clock. "Shit, we have ten minutes to scrape together a cheesecake."

"No problem. Wait here, I'll be back in five."

Sara jumped onto the counter and climbed out of a small window.

"We're on the second floor!" Ava called after her, but the captain didn't seem to care.

While Sara was gone, Ava attempted to clean herself up, but it was no use trying to get the chunks of cream cheese out of her hair.

Sure enough, five minutes later Sara was back, cheesecake in hand.

"How?" asked Ava.

"There's a Cheesecake Factory restaurant next door. Cashier took one look at me and gave me this bad boy half off."

Ava was in awe. "Just... unwrap it and put it on the plate."

Sara did a mock salute and plated the finished cheesecake just as the couples were called down to present their dishes.

The other couples were standing there with their plated meals... and then there was Sara and Ava, covered head to toe in food, smelling like pickle juice, and still kind of fighting.

The judges looked confused, as they should, but there was no denying that it was some damn good cheesecake. It didn't totally matter whether or not the couple actually made it because they didn't win.

They got second place, next to Devon and Anika who apparently baked a heavenly vanilla sheet cake.

"Well, we tried." said Ava after the judging was over.

"Look who's talking to me again."

Ava sighed "Baby steps." she said and Sara nodded, glad to at least be talking to the women she lov-had become fond of again.

"We should clean ourselves up, after all we still have another activity tonight." said Sara.

"You're right. I hope you can dance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to my cheesecake people (You know who you are) for supporting me, yelling at me, comforting me, and most of all, motivating me. I'm glad that you guys like this fic. This chapter is dedicated to you guys :)


	12. Dancing in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava and Sara participate in the dancing portion of the trust exercises, but things take a turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm glad you all have been liking this fic! It's truly a joy to write. I talk about this fic a lot on twitter, so you can find me there for some behind the scenes stuff @EllaLancelot.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Reading your thoughts is one of the best parts of my day :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Sara had never really been a dancer. She had never really _needed_ to learn how to dance, and the only stuff she knew was what she had picked up from Laurel, though the captain _did_  take ballet for a year, but that was in kindergarten so it doesn't count.

Ava on the other hand had taken dance classes. Quite a few, actually. Part of it was to meet pretty girls and part of it was her not having anything else worthwhile to do in her hometown.

Despite this, Sara was somehow the one that looked like she had done this before.

The dance steps were simple. After all, it was only a simple waltz, but for some reason, Sara was moving with expert technique and Ava was a stumbling mess.

Corey was right when he said the couples would have to trust one another in order for this to work, and in light of recent events, Ava and Sara weren't as in sync as they had been. Sure, the honest conversation had helped to clear things up and the food fight had been a good way to burn energy and release pent up tension, but the atmosphere was still a bit awkward.

"I can't believe you're the one who took dance classes." Said Sara. Ava was stepping on Sara's feet and tripping or slipping every few steps.

"I never said I was a _good_  dancer." replied Ava. It was true. Because of her height, she was clumsy growing up, and even as an adult the agent was often unaware of where her body was at any given time.

There was a reason that the two women were failing, and that was because they both had their guards up.

Had the dancing activity been two days ago, the pair would have killed it. Hell, they could have killed it _months_  before this. They were naturally so in sync with one another, but both women were also incredibly stubborn. Stubborn and guarded.

It's not like they were going out of their way not to make contact, but both, either purposefully or not, were tense and putting space between each other.

"The key is to relax! Let your guard down! Don't think about anyone or anything else other than dancing with your love one." Corey advised from the gazebo.

There was a makeshift dance floor in the backyard. That is, if you could even call it a dance floor. It was more like an area of grass that was cleared out and dedicated specifically for dancing. To be fair, it was a pretty nice setup. There was even a speaker system set up that was playing slow music.

"You know, maybe we should listen to him." Suggested Sara as she tried to guide Ava through the dance steps.

"What do you mean?" Asked Ava, staring at her feet, trying not to step on Sara.

"We should take this as an opportunity to relax. This kind of stuff never happens in our jobs. Right now, we have a night to dance and talk and do whatever. It's beautiful outside, so we should take this as an opportunity to, like Corey said, let our guard down."

Ava considered the offer "But we're on a mission. What about our time travel bad guy that's trying to delete me?"

"That doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves. We still have a few more days to figure this out. Today's been stressful, to be honest, this whole mission has been stressful. We deserve a small break."

"Okay. What do you suppose we do to turn this from a mission into a vacation?"

"Well, we're practically on vacation, so really all we need to do is relax."

"Relax." Repeated Ava "I think I can do that."

The women adjusted their positioning. Now they were much closer to each other and less tense. It was much easier to dance like this.

Just as they started to fall into a steady dancing pace, whatever song that had been laying faded out and soon, the intro to "A Thousand Years" was playing across the yard because of course it was.

Sara wondered why she hadn't seen this one coming. Of course the song that starts playing is one of the most stereotypical slow love songs you could find on free Spotify.

Ava and Sara continued to slowly attempt to waltz to the song playing, and rather than go into some movie-style trance where they suddenly become professional dancers, most of the dancing was their usual stumbling and re-adjusting. 

It may not have been perfect to bystanders, but it was perfect to the two of them and that's all that mattered.

As the song progressed, the two women relaxed into one another more and more. Soon, they were close together and relaxed, dancing as one person, rather than two separate people.

Granted, this metaphorical "one person" was kind of a crappy dancer, but that didn't matter because the point of this trust exercise wasn't to win a mirror ball on Dancing With the Stars, the point was to grow closer to your partner and build a newfound trust.

The song ended and a more upbeat one started playing, but Ava and Sara stayed the way they were. Close and calm and together, slowly moving along the grass.

By then, the sun had set and though the beautiful array of pinks and yellows had transformed into a blue night sky, it was still reasonably light outside and the couples were still dancing.

Ava and Sara were still dancing to whatever music was playing in the background. Sara felt something on her face and whipped her hand up, pulling away from Ava.

"Shit, my nose is bleeding."

Ava looked over to the table for a napkin dispenser or something, but there was nothing of use unless Sara wanted to shove cocktail shrimp up her nose to somehow stop the bleeding.

"Corey probably has something in that lame-ass fanny pack of his." suggested Ava.

Sara nodded, a droplet of blood dropping from her hand as she did.

Corey wasn't on the stage like he had been a minute ago. 

He also was nowhere to be seen among the people on the dance floor.

"Maybe he's in the house." said Sara.

The two women pushed open the screen door and walked inside. It didn't seem like anyone was inside.

Ava was about to suggest that they go back out, when she heard a muffled screaming coming from the basement.

"I didn't know this house had a basement." Said Sara.

"Probably wasn't part of the grand tour." replied Ava.

The couple ran to the door to the stairs.

Locked.

Sara walked up to it and with one elbow, hit it open. Even with a bloody nose, there was no denying that Sara Lance was a badass.

The couple hurried down the stairs, not totally expecting what they wee going to see. St some point between Sara elbowing down the door and the women rushing down the stairs, Ava had pulled out a gun from the holster that was on her thigh.

Sara found that hot. Like _r_ _eally_  hot, but now wasn't the time to think about that because they were now both face to face with... Gary? Tied up in a chair? In the basement of this beach house? Wearing Star Wars footie pajamas?

"What the hell?" mumbled Ava. It wasn't really a question, but she got an answer anyway when Sara ripped the piece of duck tape off of Gary's mouth, causing him to let out a high-pitched scream.

"I was kidnapped by a man wearing a fanny pack." said the agent.

Sara and Ava exchanged a fearful glance. 

"Okay, so maybe I was wrong and we have less than a few days to deal with this whole time-traveler issue." Said Sara, her nose still bleeding.

Ava tilted her head "You don't say?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I get that this reveal may be a bit out of nowhere for some of you, but the next chapter will explain some stuff.


	13. Heartbroken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dramatic fight scene you've all been waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you like this chapter! This was a fun one to write, especially because I really like angst.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! Don't be shy, tell me what you think :)
> 
> Enjoy!

Corey. Motherfucking. Allington.

"We're idiots." Said Ava as she paced around the basement.

Sara nodded "I wouldn't say we're _idiots_... but yeah, we're idiots."

"Can one of you please untie me?" pleaded Gary, still stuck in his chair.

Ava sighed and walked over to her coworker. "Gary, these are zipties."

"Yes, and I am tied up in them, so please help."

Ava easily sliced the agent free with the switchblade. Gary rubbed the red marks on his hands where the zipties had been.

"Why are you wearing Star Wars footie pajamas?" asked Sara.

Gary looked down at himself "Because this guy came into my apartment and stole me from my bed."

"Still doesn't explain your clothing choices." quipped Ava.

"Is this really the time to be making fun of me?"

"Yes." the two women replied in unison.

"How long do we have until-" started Sara, but she was cut off by the sound of slow clapping coming from behind her in the dimly lit basement.

"Well it certainly took you two long enough." Said Corey. Well, he wasn't Corey anymore. He never had been. He was Alan Craig, the time traveler who had been trying to erase the Time Bureau for whatever stupid reason he had pulled form his backside.

Ava glared at him "Fuck you."

"That means a lot coming from you. No it doesn't, I'm going to erase you and kill the short one in about ten minutes." He said.

"Yeah yeah, whatever makes you happy, but before we do this whole 'fight' thing, you have some explaining to do." said Sara, trying to stall for time as she stealthily fumbled with the device she as using to contact her team.

"Fair enough." Said Cor- Alan. "Your pathetic organization took my job from me. In 2033, I was working for you guys as the best agent there had been in years. I solved every case, got in all of my paperwork, and everyone loved me. Then, I used my time travel privileges to have some fun. I went back in time four hours and won the lottery. My life could have changed I was going to take the money back to my family in the past, but the Bureau found out and put me in jail. Due to their lack of security, I was able to grab a time courier and run."

"Stupid motive, still illegal." said Ava.

"Why do you want to get rid of the Bureau though?" asked Sara, hoping that the Legends had received her S.O.S. message.

"Because, no bureau means no rules. I can make my life better,"

"Selfish bastard." mumbled Ava.

"Well what about this resort thing? Why play this specific character?" Sara knew what she was doing. She was trying to get him to talk as long as possible so she had time for backup to come. She had done it countless times in high school when she had a test she didn't study for. Keep the teacher talking until the bell rung.

"You didn't think I knew you'd come here? Come _on_ , I'm ex-bureau. I know how you idiots operate. But I must say, being _that_  positive made me want you guys to find me and kill me."

By this point, Ava had picked up on Sara's plan. "You know, now that I think about it, your cover really makes sense. Nobody would expect a loser like you to be an evil time traveler."

"And you don't have to fake being a relationship if you're the event coordinator." added Sara.

"All those times we were doing an activity you had the chance to sneak down here to your evil lair or whatever." finished Ava.

"I know, I know. I'm a genius. But, now I'm going to kill you three and erase your organization from existence." he said, grabbing a gun from his back pocket.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're going to have to kill a lot more than _three_  of us." said Sara.

There was a long awkward pause.

Sara took a deep breath and repeated herself a little louder "You're going to have to kill a lot more than-"

The captain was cut off by her team rushing through a portal into the basement, suited up and ready to fight.

"Saved by the bell." mumbled Sara as she caught her bo-staff that was thrown to her by Amaya.

The team was working hard at fighting Alan. He was apparently a really skilled fighter, which was surprising because of his scrawny build. He also appeared to know the area pretty well because he was climbing and jumping shelves and platforms with ease. The lighting in the room didn't help wither, you could hardly see two feet in front of you, especially at night.

"What took you guys so long?" asked Sara. She and Zari were walking around the basement together, taking jabs at whatever appeared to be their culprit.

"Ray made cinnamon rolls."

"You risked my life for _cinnamon rolls_?"

"You could have survived five minutes without us. Besides, they would have gotten cold."

Before Sara could yell at her team for living up to their title of the "Idiot Brigade." Alan launched into another one of his bad-guy monologues.

"You know what they say, cut off the head and two grow back. Well, biologically that's false, but nevertheless, I've always preferred going for the heart. The death is guaranteed, but painful. The organs slowly failing along with the heart as it pumps it's last ounces of blood in an attempt to keep the system going, even though the war has been long lost."

Sara didn't know what he was talking about. She had dealt with some batshit crazy villains and criminals in her time on the Waverider, but this specific "Dark and broody monologue" didn't make any sense.

Somebody must have found a light switch, because suddenly the room was brighter and Sara saw Alan standing before her, holding an unamused Ava at gunpoint.

Sara was finally getting it, and the sight of the woman she had been slowly falling for standing there, possibly about to die, sent a chill throughout her body.

Alan decided to continue his monologue, not that needed to explain anything. "This whole 'team' you've got here isn't going to do you any good. You guys are just the muscle in this situation." he said gesturing to Sara and the Legends"And she's the heart." he said gesturing to Ava "All I have to do is take her out and it's all over for you. Face it, Sara, without you you're little team is a headless horse, and without your pretty little girlfriend, you're just as useless as the rest of them."

"Is this a negotiation?" asked Sara, trying to sustain her tough exterior.

"Of course not." replied Alan "This is an ultimatum. You let me continue my personal vendetta, and she lives. For now, anyways."

"And what if we don't?" asked Ray, joining the conversation.

"What do you think? I kill her, along with your captain's emotional stability."

"I don't know what you think this'll do, but we're not letting you win." said Ava.

For somebody staring death in the face, Ava seemed less terrified and more exasperated.

"You think _you_  have a say in this?" Alan Said "Just stand here and look pretty until I decide whether or not I'm going to spare your life."

Ava cocked her eyebrow, a habit she had picked up from Sara. "Yeah, no." said the agent and before anyone could register what was happening, she kicked Alan between the legs.

Going by sheer instinct, he fired the gun on Ava.

Since he was kicked, his aim was off. Rather than hitting Ava in the heart, the bullet entered closer to her shoulder, but the impact was still enough to bring the taller woman to the floor.

Sara let out a high pitched shriek, before she refocused, and all she could see was the beat-up body of Alan Craig lying lifeless in the Waverider, a fantasy she hoped would soon be fulfilled.

The captain ran to him, bo-staff in hand, when she was stopped by Nate.

"Move." she commanded.

"We've got this, go be with Ava. She needs you."

"I need to kick his ass." replied the blonde.

"I know, and you'll get your chance, but right now, your girlfriend, or whatever she is to you, has just been shot and is now on the floor."

Nate was right. Sara hated when Nate was right. The captain turned away and went over to Ava who was still on the floor.

She could see the dark red stain that was growing on the agent's tore blouse. The redness was spreading, and fast.

Ava was unconscious, and in theory that was a good thing because at least she wasn't in pain, but if she... left, Sara would never get her chance for a dramatic love confession. The blonde checked for a pulse, and it was there, but not like it should be.

The agent needed medical attention. Fast.

Sara frantically looked around the room for anyone that could help her. By now, there were tears in her eyes, the realness of the situation hitting Sara all at once.

Amaya and Sara locked eyes. Amaya could see the desperation in her captain's face. She ripped Gary's time courier off his wrist, causing him to let out another high-pitched scream, and threw it to Sara.

Sara fumbled with the buttons before opening a portal onto the Waverider.

She dragged Ava onto the ship and into the MedBay.

"Gideon, fix her!" Sara pleaded.

In that moment, Sara felt the weight of Alan's comparison. She truly felt as if her own heart had been removed from her chest.

"Hang in there." she whispered to Ava, as if the agent could hear her "Hang in there."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil laughter*


	14. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara looks back on her past as she anxiously waits with Ava in the MedBay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm kind of sad that I only have one more chapter left to write. I'm so happy that you guys have been loving this fic so far, as I love writing it. Also, shutout for my sister for letting me write this on her laptop <3
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Reading what you all think is honestly one of my favourite things about writing :)
> 
> Enjoy!

It had been 20 minutes. 20 agonizing minutes where Sara Lance was forced to watch the woman she had fallen for lie helpless in a MedBay chair.

"Gideon, any-"

The AI cut her off "No updates, captain."

"Thanks." said Sara as she continued to pace back and forth around the MedBay.

Sara wanted to go out there and fight so badly. She wanted to go back into the basement of that beach house and beat the man that did this to Ava until he was in worse shape then he was, but she couldn't.

The captain couldn't leave Ava.

Not here.

Not like this.

And so she paced. Back and forth and back and forth, pushing away the worrying voice in her head and instead thinking about what she was going to do to Corey or Alan or whatever his name was when the Legends had brought him on board.

Sara had been trying as hard as she could to stay strong. To keep it together. To not let herself be afraid or upset because if she did, she would come crashing down, but when she felt a tear betray her and roll down her cheek, there was no stopping anything.

She buried her face in her hands and started to cry for the first time in a while. The tears came slowly at first, but soon Sara was ugly crying, shaking with each sob, her face a mess of tears and snot.

"Why do all the good people have to get hurt? Why don't the assholes ever die?" Sara said to Ava's unconscious body between sobs "I mean, I suppose you're an asshole, but you don't deserve this. I should have gotten shot. I've dealt with worse. _You've_  probably dealt with worse and that's just so fucking unfair."

Sara sat down on a stool next to Ava and looked at her, helplessly lying there in her blood-stained shirt while Gideon kept her from bleeding out. "Maybe it's me. Everyone I love leaves me or dies. Stein, Jax, Kendra, Leonard, Rip, L-Laurel." Sara said, sobbing even harder now "You."

She thought back to Christmas (or I guess it was Beebo Day at the time) when she had told Ava that she needed her. Sara didn't expect her to come back. Why would she? But she did. Ava Sharpe came back. " _you needed me."_  the words echoed through Sara's head as she stared at the woman who was fighting for life.

The one person who hadn't left Sara, the one person who had come back for her, the one person who could annoy her and arouse her at the same time, was hurt and there was nothing Sara could do to help.

Whatever higher power that was torturing Sara must have taken pity on her, because after she had finished her depressing speech to Ava, Gideon had an update. A few actually.

"Captain, I have an update on Agent Sharpe."

"She's dying isn't she?" Sara choked out.

"No Captain, it's actually quite the opposite. Ava is healing quickly, as I predicted, and she's no longer in critical condition."

"Thank you Gideon. Thank you so much. Is that all?"

"No, back in the field, Mister Heywood unintentionally tripped Alan Craig, giving Miss Tomaz enough time to hit him atop the head with a found microwave, knocking him out."

Sara let out a weak chuckle at that. She loved her team and their unconventionality.

"Anything else?" asked Sara, her voice still hoarse from her emotional breakdown.

"Yes, the team is bringing _him_  back to the ship so that you can finish the job, Captain."

"Thanks Gid- Wait, they're coming back? Like, now?"

Sara's question was answered when she heard the cargo bay door open and her (very loud) team file in.

As they got closer to the MedBay, Sara worked on wiping her face and trying to look as if she had not just been a crying wreck. She braced herself when she heard approaching footsteps, but they suddenly stopped.

"Leave her alone. She needs space." Sara heard Amaya whisper.

"Why? I thought she and Ava weren't that close." said somebody who Sara assumed was Nate.

Somebody sighed, probably Zari "Open your fucking eyes! They're in _love_  with one another!" Yep, definitely Zari.

The footsteps faded out as the team went elsewhere and Sara was relieved to have some more alone time.

______________________________________

About a half an hour had passed and Sara was still sitting in the MedBay with Ava. The captain was crying, but instead of sobbing, she was just softly crying now.

"Hey." said Zari, walking in.

Sara jumped and in a fluid motion, wiped her face.

"Hey." said the captain, her voice still ragged.

"We saved you some of Ray's cinnamon rolls." she said, holding the plate out to Sara.

She shook her head "I don't think I can eat anything right now."

Zari cocked an eyebrow. As much as she respected her captain's wishes, she also needed to care for her because Sara would have done the same to anyone on the team.

"Sara, you have to eat something. What was the last thing you ate."

Sara was tempted to answer 'Ava' but it wasn't accurate and also now wasn't the time to make jokes.

"Cream cheese... and a pickle slice."

Zari blinked "Okay, not even going to question that. I'm going to leave this plate of heavenly cholesterol right here in the MedBay, and when I come back, there better be some missing."

Sara was alone with Ava yet again. The captain was beginning to nod off. She had endured a rough day, hell, she had endured a rough week.

She curled up in one of the MedBay chairs to take a nap, but she couldn't fall asleep.

Sara was so, so, tired but she couldn't fall asleep.

It occurred to her that the reason for this was probably because she had become so accustomed to sleeping next to Ava, that now she felt lonely.

 _Stupid fucking adaption to human touch._ thought Sara.

She was about to listen to Zari and grab a cinnamon roll when she noticed Ava's arm shift slightly.

In an instant, Sara was right back by Ava's side.

The agent's eyes started to flutter open. She moved her head slightly to look at Sara.

"Did we get him?" asked Ava, softly. She was still weak from being shot. She had lost quite a bit of blood.

Sara couldn't help herself from smiling because _Ava's alive goddammit! She's alive!_.

"We got him."

"Good." said Ava, making an attempt to sit up, but failing. "I need to kick his ass."

"I do too, and we will, but for now you need to rest."

"I'm fine." said Ava. She wasn't fine. She was struggling to sit up.

"Are you serious? You were just almost shot through the heart and you lost a ton of blood. An hour ago you were in /critical condition/!"

"Were you crying?" asked Ava, touching a hand to Sara's cheek.

"What do you mean 'were you crying' of course I was crying! You could have /died/!"

Ava giggled "Aww, you care about me."

Sara smiled "Yes, I care about you and I'm not going to let you out of this bed until Gidoen says it's okay."

"But I feel _f_ _ine_." Ava whined like a kid.

"You're on some pretty heavy pain meds."

Ava giggled again "You're really cute."

Sara smiled again "We'll talk in the morning, okay? Right now you need to get some sleep."

The taller woman's eyes were already beginning to close as she nodded.

Sara got up to go back out and talk to her team.

"Sara?" asked Ava, her voice soft.

"Yes?"

"Can you sleep next to me?"

Sara looked at Ava in the bed. "I don't think the bed's big enough. I don't want to hurt you."

"The bed at the house was smaller." protested Ava. Even after being shot and nearly killed the agent was still stubborn.

Sara sighed happily and walked back over to Ava, who had scooted over to make more room. She laid down in the bed next to Ava. It was a bit of a tight fit, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"You know," started Sara "This bed is a bit too cozy to be shared by co-workers or friends."

"Well then it's a good thing we're not friends." mumbled Ava.

Sara smiled and laid her head down on the shared pillow. The captain felt at ease and her tiredness seemed to catch up to her because before she knew it, she was aleep.  
____________________________________________

Zari and Amaya were walking to the MedBay to check on Sara a little while later.

"She better have eaten something." said Zari as she walked into the room, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her captain.

Zari grabbed the plate of untouched cinnamon rolls and walked out into the hall where Amaya was standing.

"Why are you suddenly so excited?" asked Amaya.  
Zari pointed to the MedBay "Look." she whisper-shouted.

Amaya did as she was told and looked into the MedBay, only to see Sara and Ava cuddling in one of the medical beds. She emerged with the same expression Zari had.

"They're so cute!"

Zari was standing there, proud expression on her face "I called it!"


	15. A Not-So Shocking Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the events of... Well, everything, Ava and Sara have a conversation about their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I wanted to start off by thanking all of you so much for reading this fic. It was absolutely a joy to write and reading your comments and support really helped me to keep going. 
> 
> I'm a bit sad that this fic is coming to an end. It marks the start and finish of my first Femslash Feb as a writer, and I'm honestly surprised I was able to finish this in a month. Who knows though, I may decide to write a continuation to this ;)
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. Since this is the last chapter, I'll be responding to any questions you guys may have about the fic :) Once again, thank you all for reading and being with me through this ride.
> 
> Enjoy!

  
A day had passed and Ava was medically cleared to get out of the MedBay (but stay on the ship) and she was on lighter pain meds.

Perfect opportunity for Sara to start a conversation with her about... everything. So why hadn't she?

The two women had spent Ava's recovery time on the waverider, practically attached at the hip, yet nothing that _needed_  to be talked about came up.

They somehow managed to survive a day and a half without talking about the mission, or their feelings, or Alan, or the fact that Ava almost died, or the fact that Sara had slept in the MedBay, or anything that happened on the mission. Instead, they talked about how Ava was feeling physically, and how good Ray's cinnamon rolls are, and how the only good thing about _real_  hospitals were the hot nurses.

Sara knew that they would have to have a conversation eventually, and Ava was well enough to talk about... everything, so now was probably the best time to do this. The blonde took a deep breath before starting.

"We should talk."

Ava nodded. "Yeah. definitely."

The room was silent for a moment.

"Where should we start?" asked Sara.

"Well, I almost died. That was wild."

"I'm glad you didn't."

"Me too."

The room was silent for another moment.

"You know what, fuck it. This may be the pain meds talking, but this conversation isn't going anywhere until somebody says something, so why don't you just admit you're in love with me and we can go from there." Joked Ava

Sara was stunned "Okay, I'm in love with you."

"I really thought you'd fight me on that, but I suppose I'm in love with you as well."

"Something tells me that us getting together for real isn't going to be that easy."

Ava nodded "We still have a long way to go. I'm still kinda hurt from the whole Anna thing."

"I know, and I'm sorry. With Anna I was genuinely just trying to get information, but you have every right to believe that I was just kissing her for fun. I do this thing where when I get close to somebody, I push them away. Sometimes that's by having sex with somebody else, sometimes that's by shutting myself off, bottom line is, I'm pretty fucked up."

Ava nodded and Sara continued "It's like they say in 'Hey Ya' _"Seperate's always better when there's feelings involved"_."

The agent laughed at that "Maybe next time don't take relationship advice from Outkast."

Sara nodded "Alright alright alright right alright."

Ava smiled and shook her head "I can't believe I've fallen for somebody who makes dad jokes."

"When _did_  you fall in love with me?"

Ava exhaled "Probably on Beebo Day, but I didn't realize it until I saw you freaking out about the boat. I felt so horrible seeing you that way, so I guess I could tell it was love based on how much I was hurting from seeing you like that."

"I wanted to kiss the condescending expression right off your face when we first met, but I don't think it was really _love_  until you held me on that boat." admitted Sara.

"I feel like there's something missing from this whole 'love confession' thing."

Sara sighed happily and grabbed one of the left over cinnamon rolls before getting down (on t _wo_  knees) and holding it up to the agent.

"Ava Sharpe, will you please be my girlfriend? For real this time?"

"That depends, will there be cheescake food fights?"

Sara nodded "Of course."

"And hand-holding."

"Yes."

"And will we pretend to have sex by banging on walls?"

"Oh, the sex part will be very real, trust me."

"And... will you cuddle with me?"

"Is that even a question? I'd do that voluntarily."

"And let me be the big spoon."

Sara smirked "We'll see."

Ava chuckled.

The captain restated her question "Will you be my girlfriend so I can get off the floor and kiss you"

"No. Okay, yes."

Sara smiled, appreciating Ava's callback. She had always liked the agent's sense of humor.

Ava slowly got up from her bed in the MedBay and offered Sara her hand, helping the captain up.

Sara wasted no time, immediately pressing a passionate kiss to Ava's lips. Ava put one hand in Sara's hair and the other was being used to stabilize herself. Sara deepened the kiss and Ava began to blindly walk Sara into a wall.

"I hate to interrupt, but Agent Sharpe is not medically cleared for such... physical activities." Quipped Gideon.

Sara pulled away, breathing heavily. Her hair was already messed up. "That sucks, but in a week, when you're medically cleared, you best believe we will... revisit this."

"You're surprisingly alright with this."

"Not the first time I've been cockblocked by an AI, isn't that right Gideon?"

"No comment." she replied.

Ava giggled (yes, hardass Agent Ava Sharpe _giggled_ ) and pressed a light kiss to Sara's forehead.

"I told you they were fucking adorable!" said Zari, causing Ava and Sara to pull themselves out of their own world and turn around.

The Legends (and for some reason, _Gary_ ) were all standing in the entrance to the MedBay, watching Ava and Sara.

"Congrats, Sara." Said Ray.

Sara smiled "Thanks."

Ava looked at Amaya's shirt "What does your shirt say?"

Amaya looked down "Oh, this? It says Avalance."

"And what's that?" asked Sara.

"It's your ship name." said Nate.

"Our what?" asked Ava.

"God, you're all so _old._ " said Zari, causing Ava and Sara to give her an identical offended look.

"It's a combination of your names. _Ava_  Sharpe and Sara _Lance_. AvaLance." explained Nate.

Ava and Sara nodded. "I get it."

Sara's team stood there in the doorway of the MedBay for another moment until Sara waved them out and her team shuffled away in opposite directions.

"Where were we?" asked Sara.

"Well, we _were_  about to have some long-awaited fun when Gideon so rudely interrupted up."

Sara nodded "Ah, yes. Well we could play a board game"

"As long as it's not Jenga."

Sara laughed and grabbed Ava's hand, lacing their fingers.

"So what's next? You know, in this whole relationship thing?" asked Ava.

"Well we're definitely going to need to go into the Waverider's holding cell and beat the shit out of the guy who shot you, so that's on the list."

"That one's a must. What else?"

"I don't know, maybe ice cream?" suggested Sara.

"This is going to be an interesting relationship. Interesting in a good way."

"That is is. And knowing us, it's also going to be one hell of a ride." said Sara.

"Well than it's a good thing I know how to fly a timeship."

It was quiet for a moment. Just Sara and Ava, holding hands in the MedBay, at peace.

"I really liked being in fake-love with you." said Ava after a minute. "It was fun."

"I liked being in fake-love with you too. Though, come to think of it it wasn't fake."

"It was real love but I guess we were pretending it was fake-love."

"So it was real-fake-love?" asked Sara.

"Yeah. A special kind of real-fake-love." said Ava.

"A special kind of real-fake-love." repeated Sara.


End file.
